Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Georginio Wijnaldum scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khalid Al-Ghannam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A performance of 8.25 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting João Costa's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Al-Ettifaq 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.
Chances created: 11. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
“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-Ettifaq can pretend not to have heard.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Taawoun in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ettifaq 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-Ettifaq, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Al-Ettifaq will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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-Ettifaq the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
Looking aheadLooking ahead: the trip to Al-Taawoun
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khalid Al-Ghannam 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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.99 on the card, and the Al-Ettifaq support went home talking about one name.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
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.” Abdullah Al-Rashid, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at Al-Ettifaq 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Georginio Wijnaldum and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khalid Al-Ghannam 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.
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.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammed Al-Essa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“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-Ettifaq can pretend not to have heard.
7.78, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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 7.95 for the rest of it.
Ondrej Duda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khalid Al-Ghannam 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 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.
It needed Georginio Wijnaldum to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Al-Shabab, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
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-Ettifaq 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.
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 Abdoulaye Kanté is on it.
Something was said to Ahmed Al-Julaydan and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdoulaye Kanté trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Shabab in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Ondrej Duda 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.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
171% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Ettifaq
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I watch every Al-Ettifaq 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mohammed Al-Essa is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Ettifaq, another week without a signature from Battal Al-Harthi.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ettifaq have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Up for the corner, and Ondrej Duda delivers — 7.97
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ondrej Duda scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 103th minute. Al-Hazem will replay every second of the added time for a week.
7.65, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.73 beside his name.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Anas Al-Ahmadi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 made Al-Ettifaq work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Ondrej Duda was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Abdullah Al-Rashid on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammed Al-Essa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Abdoulaye Kanté is on it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ahmad Al-Rehaili has his answer from Al-Ettifaq; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Al-Qadisiyah moved on, Abdoulaye Kanté reports back to Al-Ettifaq, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Battal Al-Harthi has just signed for Al-Ettifaq, and for once the answer mattered.
“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-Ettifaq can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 34 signed and 21 gone
That is the business done at Al-Ettifaq 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.
“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-Ettifaq heard it as anything else.
Al-Ettifaq offered $11.0K; Al-Taawoun 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.
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 18 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Ettifaq, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.58, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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-Ettifaq 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.12 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The fee is $400.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Damac drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
14 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.
“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-Ettifaq, and 2 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
17 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.
9 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Damac; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
9 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 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Ettifaq can pretend not to have heard.
Matija Gluščević has left for Al-Qadisiyah in a $3.3M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khalid Al-Ghannam 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.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
141% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Ettifaq
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I watch every Al-Ettifaq 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al-Shabab will make the call about Faris Al-Ghamdi this week. Al-Ettifaq have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Khalid Al-Ghannam signs something — a contract at Al-Ettifaq or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Al-Ettifaq know which stage they are at.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Qadisiyah waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Ettifaq can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ittihad have kept their man, and Al-Ettifaq go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Abdulaziz Al-Harbi 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“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 offer from Al-Ittihad for Meshal Sibyani 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.
12 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ondrej Duda signs something — a contract at Al-Ettifaq or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Al-Ettifaq will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
A new face in his position, and Ondrej Duda suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Al-Ettifaq have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ohod waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The phone has started ringing about Matija Gluščević again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Fateh. Al-Ettifaq are listening politely and promising nothing.
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-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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-Ettifaq, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Ittihad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ondrej Duda was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Add another name to the list: Ohod have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Faris Al-Ghamdi. The answer from Al-Ettifaq has not changed — yet.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Khalid Al-Ghannam signs something — a contract at Al-Ettifaq or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The name of Matija Gluščević has come up in conversations Al-Ettifaq were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
Al-Fateh paid $480.0K and Al-Ettifaq took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khalid Al-Ghannam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Al-Ettifaq than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The offer from Slovan Bratislava for Marek Rodák 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Ettifaq have done the hard part with Al-Shabab, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 20, Rayane Messi is already the best thing here
An average of 7.05 in a first team he is several years too young for. Al-Ettifaq have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Hilal have kept their man, and Al-Ettifaq go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Abdulbasit Hindi 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.
7 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.
Al-Ettifaq have made the call to Al-Diriyah. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matija Gluščević and Al-Ettifaq agree another 4 years.
Add another name to the list: Ohod have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Belal Al-Dawaa. The answer from Al-Ettifaq has not changed — yet.
Mohammed Abdulrahman 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-Ettifaq 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 offer from Olympiacos for Jordan Larsson 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-Nassr paid $4.8M and Al-Ettifaq took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Al-Hilal paid $4.4M and Al-Ettifaq took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“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-Ettifaq 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.
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.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
“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-Ettifaq can pretend not to have heard.
“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-Ettifaq hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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 Khalid Al-Ghannam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Damac have kept their man, and Al-Ettifaq go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Awad Dahal again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Nahda. Al-Ettifaq are listening politely and promising nothing.
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Al-Ettifaq know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
30 appearances and 1 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad31 May 2027
Rayane Messi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad31 May 2027
7 new faces, and Al-Ettifaq 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ondrej Duda signs something — a contract at Al-Ettifaq 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-Ettifaq. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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-Ettifaq, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ondrej Duda and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I did not go to Al-Saudi Al-Watani to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ettifaq and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 41 matches say the rest.
9 clean sheets from 28 appearances at Al-Njoom. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns 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.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Abdullah Madu's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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-Ettifaq will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
18 clean sheets across a season, and the one award on the pitch nobody else is eligible for. Most keepers get through a whole career without a year like it.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdulbasit Hindi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Yusuf Akçiçek 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-Ettifaq, and 11 appearances in 37 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Al-Ettifaq 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-Ettifaq know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Al-Ettifaq would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Moussa Dembélé’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Al-Ettifaq know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody 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.
Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ettifaq know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Al-Ettifaq would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saud Al-Ruwaili trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khalid Al-Ghannam 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 did not go to Al-Saudi Al-Watani to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ettifaq and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 37 matches say the rest.
9 shut-outs in 28 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Abdulbasit Hawsawi has been having a lot of them.
Nobody at Al-Ettifaq 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Abdullah Madu's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“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-Ettifaq can pretend not to have heard.
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-Ettifaq 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jordan Larsson signs something — a contract at Al-Ettifaq or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Khalid Al-Ghannam plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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 Khalid Al-Ghannam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Ettifaq told Abdullah Khateeb something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ettifaq know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Al-Ettifaq will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Position 2 on 74 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.
Position 2, 74 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.
Match3 Apr 2027
Another one collected away from home
9 on the bounce on the road for Al-Ettifaq. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Al-Ettifaq know what they have, and so, by now, does 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-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 name of Radhi Al-Otaibi has come up in conversations Al-Ettifaq were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I watch every Al-Ettifaq game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Saudi Al-Watani runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Abdullah Madu is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
27 appearances at Al-Njoom and the goals have stopped going in. Al-Ettifaq lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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 Abdoulaye Kanté is on it.
The name of Jack Hendry has come up in conversations Al-Ettifaq 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rayane Messi did not need any: 8.18, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.14 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Ettifaq and Al-Shoulla in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 9.61 — 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 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-Ettifaq know it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Georginio Wijnaldum provided it, and the 8.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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-Ettifaq know it.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.32 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Ettifaq can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Georginio Wijnaldum and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khalid Al-Ghannam 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.
11 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.
Al-Batin will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Ettifaq were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Moussa Dembélé provided it, and the 8.97 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-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Abdullah Khateeb.
Squad15 Feb 2027
5 new faces, and Al-Ettifaq 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
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.” Abdullah Al-Rashid, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
8 shut-outs in 22 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Abdulbasit Hawsawi has been having a lot of them.
In brief
The dugoutAbdoulaye Kanté has become a man the manager trusts
“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.
Position 3, 53 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.31 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rayane Messi did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Up for the corner, and Yusuf Akçiçek delivers — 7.23
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Yusuf Akçiçek scored, was marked 7.23, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
A season average of 7.02 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Al-Ettifaq know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“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-Ettifaq hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“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-Ettifaq, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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-Ettifaq 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-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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-Ettifaq, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Shabab have kept their man, and Al-Ettifaq go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
A brace, and Ondrej Duda takes the afternoon — 8.43
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ondrej Duda provided it, and the 8.43 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. Jordan Larsson provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Everything agreed with Al-Khaleej, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Turki Al-Madani has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Al-Ettifaq. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
“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-Ettifaq, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Al-Ra'ed for Radhi Al-Otaibi 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.
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.
A season average of 7.02 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Al-Ettifaq know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdullah Al-Bishi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Add another name to the list: Al-Khaleej have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Matija Gluščević. The answer from Al-Ettifaq has not changed — yet.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Moussa Dembélé. 3‑1 against Al-Hazem, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Al-Ettifaq asked and Damac 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-Fayha will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Ettifaq were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“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-Ettifaq, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
3 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.
Al-Saudi Al-Watani will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Ettifaq were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.85, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A brace, and Álvaro Medrán takes the afternoon — 8.44
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Álvaro Medrán provided it, and the 8.44 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.
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-Ettifaq 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Jordan Larsson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Abdulbasit Hindi 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Jordan Larsson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.42. 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 8.21 — 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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑1, already talking about the next one.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Abdullah Madu's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Álvaro Medrán takes the afternoon — 8.43
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Álvaro Medrán provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Rayane Messi, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Jordan Larsson 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Rayane Messi 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.
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-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The Al-Ettifaq dressing room has split into 3 groups
Squads form friendships and that is healthy; this is not that. 3 separate groups, 2 players belonging to none of them, and a set of tables at lunch that have stopped rearranging themselves. It very rarely fixes itself.
“I did not go to Al-Saudi Al-Watani to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ettifaq and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
9 combined actions and 7.02. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Al-Ettifaq have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Khalid Al-Ghannam trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Moussa Dembélé provided it, and the 9.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody 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.
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-Ettifaq 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 7.09, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Sultan Harun
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.
7 goals in one match, Moussa Dembélé on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Ettifaq and Ohod.
Marked 9.78 — 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.
Abdulbasit Hindi 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.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
Nobody at Al-Ettifaq 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A Al-Ettifaq teenager takes the young player award
Rayane Messi is 19, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ohod in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Rayane Messi, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.94
A mark of 7.94 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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-Ettifaq heard it as anything else.
“I did not go to Al-Saudi Al-Watani to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ettifaq and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Abdullah Al-Rashid after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
In brief
SquadRayane Messi is the weekend's best young player
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jordan Larsson provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Rayane Messi, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.11
A mark of 8.11 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-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.
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.
Abdullah Madu was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Álvaro Medrán was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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.
In brief
SquadRayane Messi is the division's best young player this month
Jordan Larsson 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Abdullah Al-Rashid on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Chances created: 11. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ettifaq know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutAbdullah Madu asks for a word with the manager
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jordan Larsson provided it, and the 8.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rayane Messi did not need any: 8.19, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.07 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Up for the corner, and Abdullah Madu delivers — 7.70
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Abdullah Madu scored, was marked 7.70, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Abdulbasit Hindi 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 19 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.
7 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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I did not go to Al-Saudi Al-Watani to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ettifaq and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Al-Ettifaq were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ziyad Al-Ghamdi has his answer from Al-Ettifaq; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
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 Ziyad Al-Ghamdi is on it.
In brief
The terracesThe Moussa Dembélé rumours reach the terraces
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Abdullah Al-Rashid chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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 Abdoulaye Kanté is on it.
The captaincy has been taken off Madallah Al-Olayan. Al-Ettifaq will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
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-Ettifaq can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Abdullah Al-Rashid after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for Al-Ettifaq
Rayane Messi, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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 19 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.
“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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
6 new faces, and Al-Ettifaq 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.” Abdullah Al-Rashid on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for Al-Ettifaq
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matija Gluščević and Al-Ettifaq agree another 4 years.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Abdullah Madu 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.
“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-Ettifaq, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Sparta Prague moved on, Moussa Dembélé reports back to Al-Ettifaq, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Al-Ettifaq close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 11 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.
Jordan Larsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Rayane Messi is the division's best young player this month
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Al-Ettifaq will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Abdoulaye Kanté is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
0‑3 to Al-Fayha, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The phone has started ringing about Moussa Dembélé again, and this time the name on the line is Sparta Prague. Al-Ettifaq are listening politely and promising nothing.
Abdulbasit Hindi 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 manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Marek Rodák's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Marek Rodák knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout31 Aug 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Abdullah Al-Rashid to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
Squad4 Al-Ettifaq players away with their countries
6‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Álvaro Medrán takes the afternoon — 8.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Álvaro Medrán provided it, and the 8.42 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. Jordan Larsson provided it, and the 8.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rayane Messi did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.50 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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-Ettifaq, and it is not being withdrawn.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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-Ettifaq and Al-Saudi Al-Watani in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Diriyah have kept their man, and Al-Ettifaq go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ohod waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Al-Fateh paid $1.5M and Al-Ettifaq took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Hilal is saying, and nobody at Al-Ettifaq is enjoying the guessing.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
“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.
“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-Ettifaq heard it as anything else.
The deal with Al-Hilal 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.
Georginio Wijnaldum 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sultan Al-Khaibari is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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-Ettifaq have no good answer.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
The terracesThe stands have heard the Moussa Dembélé talk too
“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-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Still no offer on the table, and Marek Rodák’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rayane Messi 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.