“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-Ahli can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have shaken hands with Al-Diriyah; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
$3.2M was the most the club would pay and Al-Shabab 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.
6 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
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 7.88 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 $3.4M — a club that wants Mubarak Al-Rajeh enough to be asked twice.
67 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Ahli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Al-Ahli asked and Al-Ettifaq said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Al-Ahli have gone to Al-Shabab 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 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-Ahli know it.
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-Ahli can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Nobody at Al-Ahli 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ahli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Al-Wehda for Rayan Hamed 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 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.
Ziyad Al-Johani 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.
Nobody at Al-Ahli 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Roger Ibañez signs something — a contract at Al-Ahli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ahli will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Al-Ettifaq for Valentin Atangana 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 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.
The name of Mohammed Sulaiman has come up in conversations Al-Ahli were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Rakan Al-Shamlan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jul 2027
11 new faces, and Al-Ahli are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Nobody at Al-Ahli 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ahli know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ahli 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-Ahli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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-Ahli, and it is not being withdrawn.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.29, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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-Ahli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
67 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.
Al-Shabab paid $4.5M and Al-Ahli took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The phone has started ringing about Rayan Hamed again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Wehda. Al-Ahli are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduard Spertsyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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-Ahli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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-Ahli heard it as anything else.
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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Eid Al-Muwallad is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Nobody at Al-Ahli 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.
“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.
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-Ahli can give him that is a question about the club, not about 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-Ahli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 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.
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 Galeno is on it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Corinthians had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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-Ahli can pretend not to have heard.
The chase for Mohammed Al-Khaibari ended with $2.8M changing hands and Al-Riyadh out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.29, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Al-Ahli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduard Spertsyan 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.
67 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.
The offer from Cruzeiro for Roger Ibañez 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.
Al-Riyadh have accepted the money. What Al-Ahli do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Al-Ahli had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Fayha, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The enquiry everybody at Al-Ahli was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Ahli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Jeel had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Al-Ahli have gone to Al-Fayha 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.
Add another name to the list: Porto have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Galeno. The answer from Al-Ahli has not changed — yet.
“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-Ahli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohammed Al-Mahwari is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Al-Ahli offered $130.0K; Al-Riyadh said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“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-Ahli, and it is not being withdrawn.
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-Ahli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Al-Ahli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduard Spertsyan 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 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.
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.
4 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.
“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-Ahli can pretend not to have heard.
A season average of 7.29 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Al-Ahli know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Merih Demiral 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 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 Roger Ibañez is on 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 Abdullah Radif has written the date down.
4 goals in 11 games at Al-Ta'ee — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ahli updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Al-Ahli have no good answer.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Roger Ibañez
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
“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-Ahli can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matheus Gonçalves did not need any: 8.39, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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-Ahli will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohammed Al-Mahwari and Al-Ahli agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than 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 Eduard Spertsyan 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.
“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-Ahli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The agreement at Al-Nahda has 5 days left in it, with 7 appearances to weigh. Three doors: keep him, sell him, lend him again — and none of them stays open long.
“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-Ahli, and it is not being withdrawn.
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-Ahli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Al-Ahli game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Nassr runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Al-Ahli 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.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Al-Ta'ee suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Al-Ahli, and the summer will force it.
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.
Merih Demiral 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 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 Roger Ibañez is on it.
“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-Ahli can pretend not to have heard.
Merih Demiral 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.
Nobody at Al-Ahli 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutBader Kabli asks for a word with the manager
Galeno 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.
Nobody at Al-Ahli 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ahli know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“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-Ahli, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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-Ahli know it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matheus Gonçalves wants continental football; whether Al-Ahli can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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-Ahli, and 4 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Al-Ahli 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Roger Ibañez signs something — a contract at Al-Ahli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.29, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Nobody at Al-Ahli 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Édouard Mendy signs something — a contract at Al-Ahli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Ahli. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Roger Ibañez has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
67 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.
“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-Ahli, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
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.
“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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matheus Gonçalves did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
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-Ahli 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-Ahli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The offer from Halmstad for Abdullah Radif 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.
“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-Ahli know it.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Al-Ahli prefer.
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 Galeno is on it.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Matheus Gonçalves has come out of that comparison in the side, and Al-Ahli have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Eduard Spertsyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Roger Ibañez signs something — a contract at Al-Ahli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The first defeat in 10 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Al-Shabab; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“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-Ahli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Merih Demiral 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
10 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.
A mark of 8.39 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Eduard Spertsyan wants continental football; whether Al-Ahli can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
9 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.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Two goals and a mark of 8.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matheus Gonçalves did not need any: 8.35, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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-Ahli heard it as anything 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-Ahli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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-Ahli can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
8 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Feras Al-Brikan reports back to Al-Ahli with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“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.
At 18 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.
“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-Ahli, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Ahli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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-Ahli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
6 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.
The offer from Arsenal for Valentin Atangana 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matheus Gonçalves did not need any: 8.44, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Add another name to the list: Al-Ittihad have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Feras Al-Brikan. The answer from Al-Ahli has not changed — yet.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Al-Ittihad; Al-Ahli go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Nassr is saying, and nobody at Al-Ahli is enjoying the guessing.
Olympique de Marseille pay $75.8M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Francisco Trincão obliged against Al-Fateh. 4‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Al-Ahli.
“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-Ahli can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Konyaspor for Merih Demiral 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Saudi Al-Watani waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ahli is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Ahli have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matheus Gonçalves did not need any: 7.63, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Merih Demiral delivers — 7.57
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Merih Demiral scored, was marked 7.57, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
11 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.
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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mansour Al-Nakhli has agreed terms with Al-Mojzel for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
“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-Ahli can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Al-Hilal for Feras Al-Brikan 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Al-Ahli have had the benefit of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Ahli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.15, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The phone has started ringing about Abdullah Radif again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Taawoun. Al-Ahli are listening politely and promising nothing.
A mark of 8.32 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.
“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.
Francisco Trincão 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.
10 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.
At 21 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.
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 run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 17 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“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-Ahli heard it as anything else.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout21 Dec 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 1‑3 Saeed Al-Shammari left the room before anybody could ask which.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Chances created: 12. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Merih Demiral 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.10, 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-Ahli can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
8 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Francisco Trincão provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ahli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matheus Gonçalves did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
7 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.71 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Valentin Atangana scored, was marked 7.14, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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-Ahli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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-Ahli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Ahli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduard Spertsyan 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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Francisco Trincão has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Roger Ibañez signs something — a contract at Al-Ahli 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.
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.
“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-Ahli can pretend not to have heard.
5 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.
“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-Ahli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Francisco Trincão 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 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.
26 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.
4 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.
“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-Ahli 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: Francisco Trincão. 1‑0 against Al-Qadisiyah, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Francisco Trincão provided it, and the 8.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eduard Spertsyan provided it, and the 8.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Abubacarr Sedi Kinteh 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Ahli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduard Spertsyan 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Eduard Spertsyan in the middle of it, and Hajer unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saleh Abu Al-Shamat was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Merih Demiral 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 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-Ahli know it.
11 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Ahli has been clear about where Bader Kabli stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
“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-Ahli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Feras Al-Brikan’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Ahli needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“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-Ahli, and it is not being withdrawn.
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Market5 Oct 2026
Al-Ahli may not be able to give Galeno what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Galeno wants continental football; whether Al-Ahli can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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-Ahli know it.
Merih Demiral 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Ahli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduard Spertsyan 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.
7 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
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.
At 21 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Al-Ahli can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“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-Ahli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Ahli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saleh 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matheus Gonçalves did not need any: 8.28, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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-Ahli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.89, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
At 21 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.
A performance of 8.32 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Saeed Al-Shammari kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Naif Masoud
“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-Ahli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The deal that would have taken Yaseen Al-Zubaidi to Al-Nassr has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Al-Ahli with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Marked 9.47 — 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.
At 23 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduard Spertsyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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-Ahli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Al-Hilal have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Roger Ibañez. The answer from Al-Ahli has not changed — yet.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Al-Ahli close the window on a squad of their own making
17 in and 7 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Ahli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Galeno 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-Ahli ran out of time with Al-Fayha. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Al-Ahli who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Al-Ahli have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
11 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mohammed Sulaiman had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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-Ahli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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-Ahli can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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 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. 13 actions, 6.43, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The offer from Al-Hilal for Roger Ibañez 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.
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.
“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-Ahli can pretend not to have heard.
The fee is $840.0K, 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ricardo Mathias had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Al-Ahli have gone to Al-Qadisiyah 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.6M — a club that wants Mohammed Qasem enough to be asked twice.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
The offer from Trabzonspor for Merih Demiral 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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
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.
Add another name to the list: Trabzonspor have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Merih Demiral. The answer from Al-Ahli has not changed — yet.
“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.
Francisco Trincão 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 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.