“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.
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.
The first defeat in 7 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Al-Hilal; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohammed Al-Mahwari and Al-Ahli agree another 3 years.
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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutHugo Moura dropped after a run of poor form
Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
13 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.
The offer from Al-Taawoun for Saeed Baattia 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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
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.
6 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.
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 16 gone
That is the business done at Al-Ahli 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abubacarr Sedi Kinteh is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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.
Roger Ibañez 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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
5 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.
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.
Enzo Millot 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.
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.
The offer from Al-Fateh for Naif Masoud 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.
4 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.
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 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 easiest signature of my career.” Abubacarr Sedi Kinteh and Al-Ahli agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Al-Ahli moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Rashid Al-Ghamdi, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
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.
4 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Valentin Atangana 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.
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 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.
$2.1M was the most the club would pay and Al-Faisaly 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.
The offer from Al-Mojzel for Abdullah Otayf 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abubacarr Sedi Kinteh is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Al-Ahli asked and Al-Faisaly said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Roger Ibañez 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.
17 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Hazem have kept their man, and Al-Ahli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mohammed Abdulrahman has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Al-Ahli than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sultan Mandash had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The fee is $4.2M, 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Hugo Moura has, at Al-Ahli, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
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 Édouard Mendy is on it.
The offer went to Al-Fayha 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Qassem Lajami has just signed for Al-Ahli, and for once the answer mattered.
Roger Ibañez 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 name of Sultan Mandash has come up in conversations Al-Ahli were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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 is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al-Ahli are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The chase for Hussain Al-Sibyani ended with $1.1M changing hands and Al-Shabab out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Al-Ahli had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Ittihad, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The phone has started ringing about Naif Masoud again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Faisaly. Al-Ahli are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Talleres have kept their man, and Al-Ahli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
15 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.
“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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Mojzel had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The deal with Al-Shabab 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 offer from Al-Shabab for Naif Masoud 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 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.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Zob Ahan 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.
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.
$920.0K on the table at Al-Shabab. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.24, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Al-Ahli had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Tranmere Rovers, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
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.
Everything agreed with Tranmere Rovers, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Roger Ibañez 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.
$370.0K on the table at Al-Khaleej. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Roger Ibañez has improved at 28, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Ahli have done the hard part with Al-Qadisiyah, 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 Al-Ahli can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Al-Hilal 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abubacarr Sedi Kinteh is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
$910.0K 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.
Roger Ibañez 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 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 offer from Grêmio 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.
“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 offer went to Al-Qadisiyah 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.
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.
23 goals in 30 games at Al-Diriyah — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ahli updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Bondarenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad31 May 2027
5 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.
The loan was meant to give him football. 3 games and 0 goals later he is back at Al-Ahli no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
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.
Roger Ibañez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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 3 appearances in 18 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.
8 goals in 23 games at Emirates Club — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ahli updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
1 for Ziyad Al-Johani, marked 7.74, 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.
“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.
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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Bondarenko 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-Ahli, and 5 appearances in 36 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 Galeno 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 Ziyad Al-Johani has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Valentin Atangana signs something — a contract at Al-Ahli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Ahli has been clear about where Abdullah Otayf stands, which is more than many ever get.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Roger Ibañez 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 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.
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 Saeed Baattia has written the date down.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Galeno has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Roger Ibañez wants continental football; whether Al-Ahli can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Roger Ibañez 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 Artem Bondarenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Al-Ahli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Bondarenko 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 watch every Al-Ahli game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ohod runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abubacarr Sedi Kinteh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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-Ahli the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“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.
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.
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 Valentin Atangana is on 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 programme of his own, away from the group, aimed at one thing the staff think is holding him back. Most improvement happens like this and none of it makes the paper.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Ali Majrashi
“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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Al-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 Eduard Spertsyan signs something — a contract at Al-Ahli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Abdulrahman Ghareeb has written the date down.
The offer from Rosenborg 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.
Valentin Atangana 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.
“I watch every Al-Ahli game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Wehda runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
4 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 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.
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.
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 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.24, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdulrahman Ghareeb and Al-Ahli agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Bondarenko 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.
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 Abdulrahman Ghareeb has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Valentin Atangana signs something — a contract at Al-Ahli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Roger Ibañez 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 Artem Bondarenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0 appearances, 0 clean sheets, and a goalkeeper no further forward than the day he left. Whether that belongs to him, to the club that borrowed him or to the people who arranged it is the argument Al-Ahli will have this month.
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 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.
Roger Ibañez 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abubacarr Sedi Kinteh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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-Ahli would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Al-Ahli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Bondarenko 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. Arsenal have kept their man, and Al-Ahli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I did not go to Ohod to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ahli and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 24 matches say the rest.
Squad15 Feb 2027
5 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.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Ahli told Rayan Hamed something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Position 3 on 61 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Shoulla had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
23 goals in 26 games at Al-Diriyah — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ahli updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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.
A season average of 7.24 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.
The offer from USM Alger for Ali Majrashi 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Al-Ahli close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 6 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.
“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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Shabab keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Artem Bondarenko 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.
In brief
MatchAfter 6 games, Al-Ahli finally taste it again
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.
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.
A mark of 8.34 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.
“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 goals in one match, Ivan Toney on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Ahli and Al-Wehda.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Ahli training over how hard people work
The offer from Al-Hilal for Abubacarr Sedi Kinteh 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. Valentin Atangana did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Inter paid $64.0M 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.
Francisco Trincão has gone, the accounts have $64.0M 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.22, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.58 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 3, 50 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.
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.
A mark of 7.78 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.
Add another name to the list: AC Milan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ivan Toney. The answer from Al-Ahli has not changed — yet.
Roger Ibañez 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.
Roger Ibañez 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.
8.26. 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.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
“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 first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Al-Hilal; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Abdulrahman Al-Sanbi 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.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Al-Ittihad, and it could have been more.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Ivan Toney takes the afternoon — 9.01
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivan Toney provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matheus Gonçalves did not need any: 8.05, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A season average of 7.12 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.
“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 0 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.22 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 8.44 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.
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.
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.
Roger Ibañez 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Ahli and Al-Khaleej, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
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.
Marked 8.12 — 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Ahli has been clear about where Feras Al-Brikan stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Rashid Al-Ghamdi, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Ahli and Najran, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Roger Ibañez 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 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.
Position 4, 28 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Ahli told Artem Bondarenko something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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 2 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
“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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
12 goals in 12 games at Al-Diriyah — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ahli updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eduard Spertsyan provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 3, 28 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matheus Gonçalves did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match24 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Al-Ahli. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Ivan Toney was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.67. 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 5‑0, Rashid Al-Ghamdi could afford to be generous.
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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad19 Oct 2026
8 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Rashid Al-Ghamdi on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Roger Ibañez 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 training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 8 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
“I watch every Al-Ahli game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ohod runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Matheus Gonçalves 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ali Al-Harbi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
Roger Ibañez 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.
“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 0 appearances in 8 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Galeno provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody 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.
“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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Rashid Al-Ghamdi, on a 4‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Rayan Hamed
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.
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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Rashid Al-Ghamdi to a room that had heard them before.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
7 goals in 6 games at Al-Diriyah — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ahli updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.15 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 7.86 for the rest of it.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Fayha have kept their man, and Al-Ahli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Ahli and Al-Jeel, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Al-Ahli have 4 straight wins of it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 17 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Al-Ahli 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.
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.
A mark of 8.07 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.
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.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.67, and 2 involvements.
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Ahli and Al-Khaleej in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The name of Merih Demiral has come up in conversations Al-Ahli were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Al-Ahli asked and Al Shabab said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Ivan Toney was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.76. 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.
“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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Roger Ibañez 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Ahli and Najran in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Ta'ee waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ahli is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ittihad have kept their man, and Al-Ahli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cortulua keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$900.0K was the most the club would pay and Al-Qadisiyah 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 Al-Ahli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 name of Abdullah Radif has come up in conversations Al-Ahli were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Al-Hilal will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Haman Mandjan has pre-agreed a move to Al-Ahli, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saeed Al-Sheikh is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Ahli training over how hard people work
The offer from Sharjah for Matheus Gonçalves 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 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.
Roger Ibañez 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 name of Yaseen Al-Zubaidi has come up in conversations Al-Ahli were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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 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.