There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Hertha BSC heard it as anything else.
Kevin Stöger 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.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
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.
0‑5 against Bayer Leverkusen, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hertha BSC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Hertha BSC can tell you which week it ends in.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Hertha BSC ran out of time with Greuther Fürth. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hertha BSC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
13 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.
17 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Hertha BSC will try again when the window opens; Frosinone may not be selling by then.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Hertha BSC heard it as anything else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Karlsruher SC have kept their man, and Hertha BSC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hertha BSC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
SC Freiburg have accepted the money. What Hertha BSC do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kevin Stöger is living that version at Hertha BSC, and it tends to show in the first month.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Predrag Rajković wants continental football; whether Hertha BSC can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Márton Dárdai 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 easiest signature of my career.” Kevin Stöger and Hertha BSC agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Hertha BSC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Predrag Rajković 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borussia Dortmund have kept their man, and Hertha BSC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Kevin Stöger is 33 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
“I watch every Hertha BSC game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Austria Klagenfurt runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
$17.5M was the most the club would pay and Bayer Leverkusen were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borussia Mönchengladbach have kept their man, and Hertha BSC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The chase for Ilyes Hamache ended with $5.5M changing hands and Schalke 04 out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hertha BSC have done the hard part with Borussia Mönchengladbach, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hertha BSC can pretend not to have heard.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jordy de Wijs has just signed for Hertha BSC, and for once the answer mattered.
Add another name to the list: Al-Nassr have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mohammed Al-Absi. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al-Ittihad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Ittihad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The offer went to Luton Town 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.
Hertha BSC asked and Bayer Leverkusen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sion waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hertha BSC is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Predrag Rajković has, at Hertha BSC, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Hertha BSC have paid $5.1M for Predrag Rajković, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hertha BSC can pretend not to have heard.
Márton Dárdai 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 Predrag Rajković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ahli have kept their man, and Al-Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Predrag Rajković wants continental football; whether Al-Ittihad can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The fee is $860.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Al-Fayha drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
A club from his own country has asked the question, and he has never pretended he did not want to be asked. Al-Ittihad have a conversation ahead of them that they will not win with money.
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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Dion Lopy
The dugoutRichard Ríos is still being punished for one mistake
Hertha BSC have gone to Union SG 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.
The offer went to Al-Ittihad 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.
“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 Hertha BSC, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chase for Bakery Jatta ended with $2.2M changing hands and Hamburger SV out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luca Philipp is living that version at Hertha BSC, and it tends to show in the first month.
$210.0K was the most the club would pay and Borussia Dortmund were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hertha BSC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hertha BSC asked and Borussia Dortmund 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 deal with Al-Fayha is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Al-Shabab paid $3.2M and Al-Ittihad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Abdulelah Al-Malki is a Al-Ittihad player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
8 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saad Al-Mosa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
3 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ittihad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Danilo Pereira 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmed Al-Ghamdi, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Richard Ríos's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
9 shut-outs in 25 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Faisal Al-Essa has been having a lot of them.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until George Ilenikhena signs something — a contract at Al-Ittihad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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-Ittihad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Full confidence, expressed in the dull, deliberate language boards reserve for when they mean it. The window that follows will show whether the words came with money attached.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ittihad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.30, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al-Ittihad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ittihad, and 6 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Al-Ittihad 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.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ittihad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 2, 63 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al-Ittihad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Dion Lopy 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Ittihad told Roger Fernandes something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I watch every Al-Ittihad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hajer runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ittihad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Hamed Al-Ghamdi is on it.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.30, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Al-Ittihad can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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 Predrag Rajković is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ittihad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ittihad, and 2 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Jan-Carlo Simić is on it.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Roger Fernandes has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Helsingborg had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al-Ittihad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“I watch every Al-Ittihad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hajer runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Al-Ittihad than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
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 Hamed Al-Ghamdi is on it.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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 Predrag Rajković is on it.
Something was said to Saleh Al-Shehri and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ittihad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Faisal Al-Ghamdi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdulaziz Al-Shammari is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Ittihad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Dion Lopy 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.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Al-Ittihad can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
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 Jan-Carlo Simić is on it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Helsingborg had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Ittihad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Al-Ittihad will try not to make too much of it.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Mohammed Barnawi 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.
A breach, a hearing, a week’s wages: Al-Ittihad handled it by the book and briefed nobody, which is how you can tell they mean it. The dressing room noticed both halves.
In brief
The dugoutDion Lopy asks for a word with the manager
Position 2 on 63 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al-Ittihad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Houssem Aouar. 1‑0 against Al-Fateh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roger Fernandes did not need any: 8.10, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Danilo Pereira 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 name of Muhannad Al-Shanqiti has come up in conversations Al-Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: George Ilenikhena. 2‑0 against Al-Faisaly, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 Predrag Rajković is on it.
A mark of 8.27 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.19 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
7.81, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al-Ittihad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: George Ilenikhena. 3‑2 against Al-Hilal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdulaziz Al-Shammari and Al-Ittihad agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulhadi Matari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Al-Ittihad will try not to make too much of it.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Predrag Rajković's mistake
Feyenoord paid $40.7M and Al-Ittihad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“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-Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Steven Bergwijn has gone, the accounts have $40.7M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The offer from Ohod for Hamed Al-Shanqeeti 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.
The phone has started ringing about Ahmed Al-Julaydan again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Shoulla. Al-Ittihad are listening politely and promising nothing.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Houssem Aouar. 1‑0 against Al-Taawoun, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faisal Al-Ghamdi 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.
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Al-Ittihad will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Add another name to the list: Feyenoord have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Steven Bergwijn. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Turki Hazazi has agreed terms with Al-Orobah for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Danilo Pereira 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdulhadi Matari is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Ittihad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Roger Fernandes, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.79
A mark of 7.79 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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-Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
33 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Roger Fernandes, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.97
A mark of 7.97 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Predrag Rajković wants continental football; whether Al-Ittihad can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7.94, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Ittihad and Al-Faisaly, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Dion Lopy 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ittihad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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-Ittihad 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 Faisal Al-Ghamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Al-Ittihad 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Al-Khaleej, and it could have been more.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Jan-Carlo Simić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.15
A mark of 8.15 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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 7.90 for the rest of it.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohammed Barnawi is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Houssem Aouar was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ittihad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Jan-Carlo Simić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 130% of the Al-Ittihad income
SquadWords at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mukhtar Ali
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al-Ittihad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Al-Ahli left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Yasser Al-Sheikh left the room before anybody could ask which.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
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 Predrag Rajković is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Youssef En-Nesyri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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-Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Al-Diriyah will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Ittihad heard it as anything else.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faisal Al-Ghamdi 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.
In brief
MatchAfter 4 games, Al-Ittihad finally taste it again
“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-Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
The deal that would have taken Steven Bergwijn to Club Brugge has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Al-Ittihad with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Al-Ittihad until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faisal Al-Ghamdi 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.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Al-Ittihad will try not to make too much of it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Hassan Kadish is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al-Mojzel will make the call about Mohammed Al-Absi this week. Al-Ittihad have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.