Position 3, 61 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.
The deal with Al-Taawoun 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.
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.
9 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Ta'ee, another week without a signature from Abdulrahman Al-Hamyani.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Omar El Hanoudi signs something — a contract at Al-Ta'ee or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Luis Haquín 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 Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Al-Ta'ee 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-Ta'ee, another week without a signature from Mohammed Al-Saiari.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Al-Ta'ee would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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 Dylan Argüello has written the date down.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Al-Ta'ee the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“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-Ta'ee can pretend not to have heard.
Luis Haquín 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Al-Ta'ee would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Nobody at Al-Ta'ee 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.
Position 3, 58 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Ta'ee is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ali Abdoulraouf Al-Abdrabalnabi has, at Al-Ta'ee, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Abdullah Matuq 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 Jonata Machado 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Sultan Al-Subaie could afford to be generous.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Mojzel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ta'ee is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The name of Rakan Al-Shamlan has come up in conversations Al-Ta'ee 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Ta'ee and Al-Fayha in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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. Hajer have kept their man, and Al-Ta'ee go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from Al-Shabab for Törles Knöll 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.
“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-Ta'ee, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.98, 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.
87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ta'ee lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Abdullah Matuq 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 Jonata Machado 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 Nawaf Al-Osaimi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Ta'ee needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Al-Ta'ee has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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 Sanele Sikhosana is on it.
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ta'ee lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The name of Rakan Al-Shamlan has come up in conversations Al-Ta'ee were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Al-Ta'ee asked and Al-Fateh 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Al-Mojzel scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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.
99 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ta'ee lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Sultan Al-Subaie has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Abdullah Matuq 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Fateh have kept their man, and Al-Ta'ee go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Safwan Al-Johani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Al-Ta'ee have made the call to Al-Qadisiyah. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager's exit leaves Luis Haquín exposed
The words a physio says slowly. 120 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Ta'ee can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Al-Diriyah for Hassan Al-Amri 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.
Luis Haquín 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 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.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Ta'ee has been clear about where Rakan Al-Shamlan stands, which is more than many ever get.
Luis Haquín 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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-Ta'ee, and 5 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ta'ee know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
3 goals in 29 games at Al-Jeel — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ta'ee updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rakan Al-Shamlan. 1‑0 against Al-Riyadh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.06. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Sultan Al-Subaie could afford to be generous.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Luis Haquín was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
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.
Al-Shoulla will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Ta'ee were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
1 for Jonata Machado, marked 7.28, 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.
“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-Ta'ee are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Abdulmalik Al-Jaber 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rogério 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.
“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-Ta'ee can pretend not to have heard.
“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-Ta'ee are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Abdulmalik Al-Jaber had Al-Ta'ee level again within 3 minutes, and Al-Nahda never got to play with a lead at all.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Ta'ee and Al-Hazem, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rogério 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
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 1‑5 Sultan Al-Subaie left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“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-Ta'ee, and it is not being withdrawn.
Luis Haquín 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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.
Luis Haquín 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.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Ta'ee and Al-Nahda in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
At 22 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Abdullah Al-Zaid 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.19, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Luis Haquín is still being punished for one mistake
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
3 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Sultan Al-Subaie was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Al-Ta'ee dressing room was either.