135 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ettifaq lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Thamer Al-Zahrani has just signed for Al-Ettifaq, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Ettifaq they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
$340.0K on the table at Al-Nahda. 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 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 fee is $240.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Al-Mojzel drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Ashraf Magdy damages knee ligaments — 142 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 142 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
Al-Ettifaq have made the call to Al-Khaleej. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Georginio Wijnaldum is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fathy El Wensh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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 Majed Al-Ghamdi has written the date down.
Ashraf Magdy damages knee ligaments — 149 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 149 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer from Al-Taawoun 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.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $176.3K of what Al-Ettifaq paid for Saif Rashad is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
“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.
Al-Ettifaq have gone to Al-Fateh 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.
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.
The chase for Naser Al-Ghamdi ended with $71.0K changing hands and Al-Batin out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$290.0K was the most the club would pay and Al-Mojzel 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 mood at Al-Ettifaq has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Ettifaq
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Krzysztof Kownacki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ettifaq the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The name of Nawaf Al-Bishri has come up in conversations Al-Ettifaq were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
$290.0K on the table at Al-Mojzel. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Meshal Sibyani had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Ettifaq people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Add another name to the list: Al-Khaleej have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abdullah Khateeb. The answer from Al-Ettifaq has not changed — yet.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zahaby Gholy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ettifaq the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdulbasit Hindi and Al-Ettifaq agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
$310.0K on the table at Al-Fateh. 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 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.
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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Ettifaq have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Faris Al-Ghamdi was one of the reasons people came, and $2.9M does not replace that by itself.
Al-Ettifaq and Al-Ta'ee have settled on $170.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“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.
Ali Al-Bulayhi 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.
$4.3M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Ettifaq have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 is going to Al-Hilal, the club has $4.3M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The offer from Al-Faisaly for Mohamed Benkhemassa 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.
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 is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ashraf Magdy is living that version at Al-Ettifaq, and it tends to show in the first month.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Faris Al-Ghamdi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Al-Faisaly for Abdullah Khateeb 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.
Add another name to the list: Al-Wehda have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jalal Al-Salem. The answer from Al-Ettifaq has not changed — yet.
Al-Wehda paid $45.0K 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al-Ettifaq are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Al-Ettifaq go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Stephan Krüger has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
“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.
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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Thamer Al-Zahrani has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Al-Ettifaq have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A new face in his position, and Georginio Wijnaldum suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Al-Ettifaq have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
The mood at Al-Ettifaq has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Ettifaq they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zahaby Gholy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdullah Madu 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.
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.
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 table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mahmoud Wahid trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdullah Madu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 shut-outs in 29 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutSaif Rashad asks for a word with the manager
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Majed Al-Ghamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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 Abdulbasit Hindi is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Ettifaq is running low.
Position 13 and 20 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Krzysztof Kownacki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ettifaq the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jalal Al-Salem, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdullah Madu 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.
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.
Nothing was announced, because nothing ever is. The team sheet simply stopped looking the way it did, 4 matches ago, and it has not looked that way since. Every supporter noticed in the same week and none of them were told.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Faris Al-Ghamdi's mistake
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ettifaq 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-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Majed Al-Ghamdi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
5 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 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.
8 shut-outs in 29 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ettifaq 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-Ettifaq have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdullah Madu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Abdulbasit Hindi is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
“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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ettifaq will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdullah Madu 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.
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 João Costa is on it.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ettifaq will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Majed Al-Ghamdi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
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 Georginio Wijnaldum is on it.
Something was said to Saad Al-Mutairi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdullah Madu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 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.
8 shut-outs in 27 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.
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 Saif Rashad trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Stephan Krüger has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Nawaf Al-Bishri is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“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 Abdulbasit Hindi.
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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Abdullah Madu 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Ettifaq is running low.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Krzysztof Kownacki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ettifaq the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Al-Ettifaq will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Redha Al-Abdullah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ettifaq the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ra'ed have kept their man, and Al-Ettifaq go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Abdullah Madu 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.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
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 Stephan Krüger to a room that had heard them before.
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 never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It was not 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.
Al-Ettifaq asked and Al-Khaleej said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jalal Al-Salem 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohamed Benkhemassa and Al-Ettifaq agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Ettifaq people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The bid was some way short and Al-Ettifaq did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 3 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdullah Khateeb and Al-Ettifaq agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Orobah have kept their man, and Al-Ettifaq go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hassan Al-Sultan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rashid Al-Otaibi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Position 13 and 13 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Ettifaq they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Ettifaq and Al-Ittihad, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The offer from Al-Qadisiyah for Abdulbasit Hindi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Ta'ee waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Al-Ettifaq and Al-Orobah have settled on $170.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
0‑3 to Al-Khaleej, 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.
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.
“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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ettifaq will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Ettifaq people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Al-Ettifaq go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I watch every Al-Ettifaq game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Batin runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdullah Madu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
Boardroom94% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Ettifaq
The dugoutJoão Costa has become a man the manager trusts
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 38 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.
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.
15 combined actions and 6.93. 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ettifaq will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ettifaq 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-Ettifaq 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 Abdullah Madu 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 Abdulbasit Hindi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ettifaq will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
He is 23 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.
“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.
“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 0 appearances in 26 say he has earned the hearing.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
0‑3 against Al-Qadisiyah, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Position 13, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
The terraces4 Dec 2028
The mood at Al-Ettifaq has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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.
Khaled Al-Khathlan 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 Dec 2028
Nobody left the Al-Ettifaq dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ettifaq will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
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.
Position 13, 8 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdullah Madu 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdullah Madu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jalal Al-Salem trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ettifaq will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
91 minutes played. Krzysztof Kownacki found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Al-Nassr went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Redha Al-Abdullah 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 13 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.33 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Chances created: 13. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdullah Madu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Al-Ettifaq will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ettifaq will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
7.74, 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.
He is 23 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.
“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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every 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-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
Looking aheadAl-Ettifaq take on the side everybody is chasing
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Everybody at Al-Ettifaq saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdullah Madu 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-Ettifaq, and 0 appearances in 18 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Georginio Wijnaldum signs something — a contract at Al-Ettifaq or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 13 and 2 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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.
4 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.
0‑1 to Al-Shabab, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Abdullah Madu 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ettifaq will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdullah Madu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 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 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
7.64, 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.
He is 19 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdullah Madu 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-Ettifaq, and 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 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.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Georginio Wijnaldum has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Al-Ettifaq are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muntathir Al-Shaqaq 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Ettifaq has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Al-Ettifaq close the window on a squad of their own making
21 in and 25 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.
The offer from Najran for Abdulraouf Al-Duqayl 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.
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 watch every Al-Ettifaq game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Ta'ee runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Al-Ra'ed 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.
“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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Georginio Wijnaldum scored, was marked 7.74, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Ahmad Al-Blooshi 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdullah Madu 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ettifaq will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Al-Ettifaq offered $1.0M; Al-Ra'ed 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.
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.
11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ettifaq will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Mohammed Al-Sultan recited it perfectly.
$1.0M on the table at Al-Ra'ed. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 deal with Hajer 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ettifaq will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Riyadh waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Viking paid $3.9M 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.
The fee is $320.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Al-Hazem drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ettifaq will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Ettifaq can pretend not to have heard.
Al-Ettifaq and Al-Hazem have settled on $320.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The name of Jordan Larsson has come up in conversations Al-Ettifaq were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Al-Ettifaq have gone to Al-Hazem 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.
Al-Ta'ee paid $250.0K 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Batin have kept their man, and Al-Ettifaq go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ettifaq will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Al-Ra'ed have accepted the money. What Al-Ettifaq do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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.
Al-Ettifaq offered $47.0K; Al-Batin 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Ettifaq have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
The offer went to Al-Batin 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.
The name of Turki Al-Ghamdi has come up in conversations Al-Ettifaq were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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.
“I watch every Al-Ettifaq game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Batin runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
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.
The offer from Al-Ta'ee for Ibrahim Al-Zahrani 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 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.
Al-Ra'ed paid $140.0K 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.
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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muntathir Al-Shaqaq 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 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Saif Rashad
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Ettifaq people have started saying his name in the past tense.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Ettifaq can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Ibrahim Al-Zahrani 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ra'ed have kept their man, and Al-Ettifaq go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
Al-Nassr paid $3.4M 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.
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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Al-Ettifaq will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
6 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al-Ettifaq are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The offer from Al-Hilal 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.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Al-Mojzel have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abdulbasit Hawsawi. The answer from Al-Ettifaq has not changed — yet.
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.
Al-Wehda paid $280.0K 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Batin have kept their man, and Al-Ettifaq go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Ettifaq, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muntathir Al-Shaqaq was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The offer from Al-Ta'ee for Saud Al-Ruwaili 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.
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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Meshal Al-Alaeli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muntathir Al-Shaqaq is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Turki Al-Ahmadi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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-Taawoun for Khalid Al-Ghannam 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.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Al-Ettifaq had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The name of Saud Al-Ruwaili has come up in conversations Al-Ettifaq were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ettifaq lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom29 May 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Ettifaq
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
29 games and 8 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad29 May 2028
9 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jalal Al-Salem trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 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.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ettifaq lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Ettifaq can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
Boardroom15 May 2028
110% 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 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 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
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 words a physio says slowly. 41 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Ettifaq can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Kadi 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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Marek Rodák is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Al-Ettifaq would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ettifaq lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
13 clean sheets from 27 appearances at Al-Diriyah. 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.
“I watch every Al-Ettifaq game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Ittihad runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Marek Rodák was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
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.
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.
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
“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.
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.
“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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
104% 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.
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-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.
8 goals in 29 games at Esteghlal Khuzestan — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ettifaq updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Kadi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It 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.
3 goals in 30 games at Al-Njoom — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ettifaq updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Turki Al-Ahmadi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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.
27 appearances at Al-Diriyah and the goals have stopped going in. Al-Ettifaq lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“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.
5 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ibrahim Al-Zahrani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Ettifaq can pretend not to have heard.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Walid Al-Mashdaq has agreed terms with Damac for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
12 clean sheets from 26 appearances at Al-Diriyah. 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.
Boardroom20 Mar 2028
111% 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.
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-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.
8 goals in 29 games at Esteghlal Khuzestan — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ettifaq updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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.
Something was said to Gastón Álvarez and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It 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.
“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.
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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Turki Al-Ahmadi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Georginio Wijnaldum and Al-Ettifaq agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ettifaq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Al-Kadi 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.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Marek Rodák was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
In brief
MarketBelal Al-Dawaa returns from a loan that taught him nothing
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohammed Al-Kadi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ettifaq the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Al-Ettifaq is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Turki Al-Ahmadi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Kadi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Al-Fateh will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, 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. Georginio Wijnaldum provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
12 shut-outs in 25 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.
Boardroom21 Feb 2028
107% 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 Al-Ta'ee runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Ebuka Ogbonna
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hamad Al-Juhani has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hassan Al-Rashid has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nasser Al-Rashid has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Faisal Al-Qahtani has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
24 appearances at Al-Diriyah and the goals have stopped going in. Al-Ettifaq lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Hamad Al-Khorayef 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.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ettifaq lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Ettifaq have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Al-Nahda for Meshal Al-Alaeli was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohammed Al-Kadi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ettifaq the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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.
“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.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 106% of the Al-Ettifaq income
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ettifaq lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Matija Gluščević had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Al-Ta'ee for Mohammed Al-Kadi 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.
Add another name to the list: Al-Nahda have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Meshal Al-Alaeli. The answer from Al-Ettifaq has not changed — yet.
6 goals in one match, Khalid Al-Ghannam on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Ettifaq and Al-Khaleej.
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 words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Nahda had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Ettifaq people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
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.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Ettifaq can tell you which week it ends in.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Riyadh have kept their man, and Al-Ettifaq go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ettifaq lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
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 name of Mubarak Al-Buainain has come up in conversations Al-Ettifaq were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ettifaq lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
0‑2 to Al-Ahli, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Turki Al-Ahmadi left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Khalid Al-Ghannam is on it.
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ettifaq lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Ettifaq is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“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 0 appearances in 28 say he has earned the hearing.
The words a physio says slowly. 71 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
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-Ra'ed in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
He is 22 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.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ettifaq lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
5 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.
“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.
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.
Marked 8.26 — 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Turki Al-Ahmadi after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The words a physio says slowly. 85 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Saad Al-Nasser 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.
Half the programme played, position 10, 14 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“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.
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.
92 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ettifaq lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Ettifaq they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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.
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.
“I watch every Al-Ettifaq game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Ta'ee runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Al-Kadi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
99 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ettifaq lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
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 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Fateh in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Abdullah Al-Shamekh is on it.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Al-Ettifaq have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ettifaq lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Hamad Al-Khorayef has come out of that comparison in the side, and Al-Ettifaq have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Turki Al-Ahmadi after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Faris Al-Ghamdi'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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Hamad Al-Khorayef 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hamad Al-Khorayef. 1‑0 against Al-Hilal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Ettifaq told Hamad Al-Khorayef something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
0‑3 to Al-Ittihad, 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.
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 watch every Al-Ettifaq game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Ta'ee runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Turki Al-Ahmadi left the room before anybody could ask which.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Oct 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.
“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.
7.49, 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Turki Al-Ahmadi on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hussain Al-Eissa has his answer from Al-Ettifaq; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahim Al-Zahrani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Abdulraouf Al-Duqayl 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 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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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 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-Ettifaq, and 6 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
“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.
“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.
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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I did not go to Al-Ta'ee to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ettifaq and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
The dugout27 Sep 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.” Turki Al-Ahmadi, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Marek Rodák: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
6 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.
“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.
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.
“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.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Ettifaq can tell you which week it ends in.
Hamad Al-Khorayef 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mubarak Al-Buainain, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Turki Al-Ahmadi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Al-Ettifaq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Al-Kadi 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.