Karim Yoda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Al-Ra'ed training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Abu Al-Shamat is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mansor Al-Beshe is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Zinho Gano signs something — a contract at Al-Ra'ed or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Abdullah Al-Yousif has written the date down.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ra'ed this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Al-Ra'ed training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Solomon Tweh is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Karim Yoda trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Al-Ra'ed will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Ra'ed, another week without a signature from Wilfried Eza.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Faisaly people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Al-Qadisiyah for Ibrahima N'Diaye was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
1 for Raphael Silva, marked 6.79, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Al-Ra'ed paid $360.0K and Al-Faisaly took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yael Trepy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Al-Faisaly asked and Al-Ittihad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The mood at Al-Ra'ed has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Al-Ra'ed have gone to Al-Ahli with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Ra'ed can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Al-Nassr this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The chase for Wilfried Eza ended with $360.0K changing hands and Al-Faisaly out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Faisaly, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Faisaly they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jaime Seoane wants continental football; whether Al-Faisaly can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Yael Trepy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
0‑1 to Al-Wehda, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdullah Al-Rashidi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Faisaly the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.65 for the rest of it.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 7.00, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Chances created: 16. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Al-Faisaly will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Faisaly they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Theo Bongonda and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Seck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Faisaly told Hussain Al-Qahtani something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mohammed Al-Shanqiti has his answer from Al-Faisaly; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Al-Fateh next, and one man in the Al-Faisaly dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutWilfried Eza knocks on the manager's door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Faisaly can pretend not to have heard.
Andrei Girotto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yael Trepy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nasser Al-Salem after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Faisaly will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Faisaly people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The name of Abdullah Al-Rashidi has come up in conversations Al-Faisaly were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Faisaly this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Yael Trepy falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Faisaly will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Faisaly, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Faisaly have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.85 for the rest of it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $15.0K — a club that wants Yasser Al-Shahrani enough to be asked twice.
Andrei Girotto was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Faisaly will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Yael Trepy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Al-Faisaly asked and Al-Ahli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Al-Faisaly will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Al-Faisaly have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Wilfried Eza has written the date down.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Faisaly will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Faisaly have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Theo Bongonda and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody at Al-Faisaly will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rayan Fallatah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Faisaly the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jordan Longhi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Al-Faisaly will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jaber Issa has written the date down.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Al-Faisaly know it.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Faisaly, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Theo Bongonda signs something — a contract at Al-Faisaly or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Faisaly lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rayan Fallatah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Faisaly the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Theo Bongonda and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulrahman Al-Sherif was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Fahad Al-Dossari is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Faisaly know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Jordan Longhi’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
80 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Faisaly lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Faisaly they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Al-Faisaly know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Seck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Abdullah Al-Mogren is on it.
In brief
The dugoutWilfried Eza knocks on the manager’s door
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Faisaly lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Faisaly this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Wilfried Eza, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdoulaye Seck is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Something was said to Wilfried Eza and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jaber Issa’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Faisaly needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Faisaly, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Faisaly know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 56 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Faisaly this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulrahman Al-Sherif was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mohammed Al-Aqeel’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Faisaly needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Wilfried Eza has written the date down.
A mark of 7.89, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Nasser Al-Salem, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Wilfried Eza
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Faisaly training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulrahman Al-Sherif is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Nassr in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.