From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Feb 2035
The words a physio says slowly. 131 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.
Match19 Feb 2035
Al-Hilal sink to position 12
15 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market19 Feb 2035
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Rúben Neves 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.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Théo Hernández has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al-Hilal 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Feb 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market12 Feb 2035
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad12 Feb 2035
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Feb 2035
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Squad12 Feb 2035
A move Manor Levy would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Manor Levy is living that version at Al-Hilal, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom12 Feb 2035
Al-Hilal cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
The administrators have gone from Al-Hilal
A year of somebody else signing off every invoice ends this week. The books are smaller, the squad is smaller, and for the first time since it began the club is allowed to plan.
Match3 Feb 2035
The wait goes on for Al-Hilal
8 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.
Market5 Feb 2035
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market5 Feb 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Feb 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sergej Milinković-Savić and Al-Hilal agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Sergej Milinković-Savić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Théo Hernández 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.
Match3 Feb 2035
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Rúben Neves gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 Jan 2035
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom29 Jan 2035
The scrutiny sharpens at Al-Hilal
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Hilal is running low.
Match27 Jan 2035
No end in sight to Al-Hilal's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Hilal has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad29 Jan 2035
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market29 Jan 2035
The name of Abdulaziz Jurmush has come up in conversations Al-Hilal were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Boardroom29 Jan 2035
Wages eat 257% of everything Al-Hilal earn
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.
Match27 Jan 2035
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad29 Jan 2035
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Jan 2035
Al-Hilal are in real trouble now
Position 12, 15 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.
Market22 Jan 2035
Ebube Duru hands in a written request
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Match20 Jan 2035
No end in sight to Al-Hilal's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Hilal has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings22 Jan 2035
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Théo Hernández 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.
Squad22 Jan 2035
“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.
Player ratings22 Jan 2035
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Théo Hernández has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al-Hilal 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Jan 2035
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market15 Jan 2035
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match13 Jan 2035
The wait goes on for Al-Hilal
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.
Match13 Jan 2035
The goals have deserted Al-Hilal
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Hilal can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad15 Jan 2035
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Jan 2035
“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-Hilal know it.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Player ratings15 Jan 2035
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom15 Jan 2035
Al-Hilal cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Jan 2035
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Squad8 Jan 2035
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Hilal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market8 Jan 2035
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Market8 Jan 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match6 Jan 2035
No end in sight to Al-Hilal's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Hilal has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad8 Jan 2035
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match6 Jan 2035
Al-Hilal cannot find the net
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.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Match6 Jan 2035
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Jan 2035
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.
Boardroom1 Jan 2035
Pressure builds in the Al-Hilal boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad1 Jan 2035
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Abdulrahman Al-Sanbi has just signed for Al-Hilal, and for once the answer mattered.
Market1 Jan 2035
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Jan 2035
“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.
Squad1 Jan 2035
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Market1 Jan 2035
Haza Shehab has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market1 Jan 2035
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Abdulrahman Al-Sanbi is a Al-Hilal player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad1 Jan 2035
Théo Hernández 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Dec 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Player ratings25 Dec 2034
Successful dribbles: 41. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match25 Dec 2034
Al-Hilal sink to position 12
13 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market25 Dec 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Dec 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Player ratings25 Dec 2034
Marked 7.63. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad25 Dec 2034
No place for Ebube Duru on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Al-Hilal pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Market25 Dec 2034
Al-Hilal bring in an old head
Alonso Hernández is 37 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Dec 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Market18 Dec 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad18 Dec 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Hilal may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Player ratings18 Dec 2034
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match16 Dec 2034
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom18 Dec 2034
No signings allowed at Al-Hilal
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Market18 Dec 2034
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Yusuf Akçiçek’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Dec 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 56 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.
Market11 Dec 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings11 Dec 2034
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market11 Dec 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Dec 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings11 Dec 2034
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Match9 Dec 2034
A 2‑0 win over Al-Ta'ee, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad11 Dec 2034
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Dec 2034
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom4 Dec 2034
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Hilal
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market4 Dec 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad4 Dec 2034
578 appearances across 11 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Al-Hilal know what they have.
Market4 Dec 2034
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Hilal heard it as anything else.
Boardroom4 Dec 2034
An order from above at Al-Hilal: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Market4 Dec 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad4 Dec 2034
Théo Hernández 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.
Player ratings4 Dec 2034
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Nov 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
Match27 Nov 2034
Al-Hilal sink to position 12
9 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market27 Nov 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings27 Nov 2034
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad27 Nov 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Squad27 Nov 2034
“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-Hilal know it.
Match25 Nov 2034
Al-Hilal and Hajer cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Hajer came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market27 Nov 2034
The clock does Davron Anvarov’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Al-Hilal could ask drops and the wages Davron Anvarov can ask rise.
In brief
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Market
The shop window has Ebube Duru in it
-
Boardroom
The Al-Hilal production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Nov 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
Player ratings20 Nov 2034
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market20 Nov 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings20 Nov 2034
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Théo Hernández 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.
Squad20 Nov 2034
“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-Hilal are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match18 Nov 2034
Three points for Al-Hilal, 1‑0 the final word against Al-Hazem in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Boardroom20 Nov 2034
No signings allowed at Al-Hilal
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Nov 2034
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings13 Nov 2034
Nobody could get near Eden Cohen
Successful dribbles: 41. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match11 Nov 2034
No end in sight to Al-Hilal's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Hilal has to find a result from somewhere.
Match8 Nov 2034
The cup run ends for Al-Hilal
0‑1 against Al-Fayha, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market13 Nov 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market13 Nov 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match11 Nov 2034
Al-Hilal cannot find the net
5 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.
Market13 Nov 2034
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Hilal heard it as anything else.
Squad13 Nov 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
-
Boardroom
Doors closed at Al-Hilal
-
Squad
Rúben Neves wants out of the spotlight
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Nov 2034
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match4 Nov 2034
Beaten 0‑5 by Al-Ahli, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match4 Nov 2034
The wait goes on for Al-Hilal
8 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.
Market6 Nov 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Market6 Nov 2034
Only the photograph left for Haza Shehab
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Haza Shehab will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Rúben Neves gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match4 Nov 2034
The goals have deserted Al-Hilal
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Hilal can tell you which week it ends in.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Oct 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 102 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.
Match30 Oct 2034
Every point is an argument now for Al-Hilal
Position 13 and 4 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.
Market30 Oct 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match28 Oct 2034
The wait goes on for Al-Hilal
7 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.
Squad30 Oct 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Oct 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Match28 Oct 2034
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings30 Oct 2034
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Oct 2034
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Oct 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 111 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.
Match21 Oct 2034
No end in sight to Al-Hilal's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Hilal has to find a result from somewhere.
Market23 Oct 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Théo Hernández 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.
Match21 Oct 2034
0‑1 to Al-Ra'ed, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom23 Oct 2034
No signings allowed at Al-Hilal
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Ebube Duru gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings23 Oct 2034
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Oct 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 118 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.
Market16 Oct 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Match14 Oct 2034
No end in sight to Al-Hilal's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Hilal has to find a result from somewhere.
Market16 Oct 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mehdi Kiani Dehkiani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Oct 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Player ratings16 Oct 2034
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Oct 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sergej Milinković-Savić, and the manager let it.
Match14 Oct 2034
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Oct 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Oct 2034
Gil Barda: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Hilal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Oct 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Théo Hernández and Al-Hilal agree another 2 years.
Match7 Oct 2034
The wait goes on for Al-Hilal
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.
Squad9 Oct 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Market9 Oct 2034
Only the photograph left for Haza Shehab
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Haza Shehab will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match7 Oct 2034
The goals have deserted Al-Hilal
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Hilal can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad9 Oct 2034
Théo Hernández 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.
Boardroom9 Oct 2034
265% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Hilal
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Oct 2034
Al-Hilal are in real trouble now
Position 13, 4 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.
Player ratings2 Oct 2034
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market2 Oct 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Oct 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Théo Hernández and Al-Hilal agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Oct 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Oct 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Match30 Sep 2034
3 matches without a goal for Al-Hilal
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.
Squad2 Oct 2034
The manager makes an example of Davron Anvarov
“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.
Market2 Oct 2034
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Sep 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Market25 Sep 2034
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Hilal heard it as anything else.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market25 Sep 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Omar Al-Shammari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Match23 Sep 2034
Al-Fayha left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom25 Sep 2034
No signings allowed at Al-Hilal
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad25 Sep 2034
“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-Hilal are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
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Boardroom
Inquest at Al-Hilal
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Squad
5 new faces, and Al-Hilal are still learning each other
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Market
Al-Hilal bring in an old head
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings18 Sep 2034
Eden Cohen runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market18 Sep 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Sep 2034
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Hilal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market18 Sep 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mehdi Kiani Dehkiani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Sep 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Sep 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Squad18 Sep 2034
Shalev Ovnish gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Shalev Ovnish has just signed for Al-Hilal, and for once the answer mattered.
The terraces18 Sep 2034
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings11 Sep 2034
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match9 Sep 2034
The wait goes on for Al-Hilal
6 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.
Market11 Sep 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Sep 2034
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Hilal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Market11 Sep 2034
Only the photograph left for Haza Shehab
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Haza Shehab will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Théo Hernández 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.
Boardroom11 Sep 2034
Wages eat 207% of everything Al-Hilal earn
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.
Market11 Sep 2034
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Rúben Neves may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings4 Sep 2034
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market4 Sep 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Sep 2034
Rúben Neves has been here 11 seasons
572 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market4 Sep 2034
Al-Hilal say no — this time
The offer from Al-Batin for Mehdi Kiani Dehkiani 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.
Match2 Sep 2034
5 matches without a win for Al-Hilal
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Al-Hilal are no longer polite ones.
Market4 Sep 2034
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Hilal heard it as anything else.
Boardroom4 Sep 2034
The Al-Hilal board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad4 Sep 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom4 Sep 2034
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Aug 2034
Nader Al-Sharari damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market28 Aug 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market28 Aug 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match26 Aug 2034
4 matches without a win for Al-Hilal
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Al-Hilal are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Player ratings28 Aug 2034
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Aug 2034
4 matches without a goal for Al-Hilal
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Théo Hernández 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Aug 2034
Nader Al-Sharari damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Market21 Aug 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Aug 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market21 Aug 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mehdi Kiani Dehkiani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Aug 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Aug 2034
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Aug 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Match19 Aug 2034
3 matches without a goal for Al-Hilal
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.
Market21 Aug 2034
He is 16, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Aug 2034
Nader Al-Sharari damages knee ligaments — 32 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Player ratings14 Aug 2034
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Aug 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market14 Aug 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Aug 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad14 Aug 2034
Eden Cohen is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market14 Aug 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom14 Aug 2034
11 academy players handed senior numbers at Al-Hilal
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market14 Aug 2034
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Waleed Al-Mansour 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Aug 2034
Nader Al-Sharari damages knee ligaments — 39 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Aug 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market7 Aug 2034
“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.
Squad7 Aug 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Silvère Ganvoula and Al-Hilal agree another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Jul 2034
Nader Al-Sharari damages knee ligaments — 46 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 Jul 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Market31 Jul 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Milad Hosseini is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jul 2034
Nader Al-Sharari damages knee ligaments — 53 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
Boardroom24 Jul 2034
The scrutiny sharpens at Al-Hilal
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Hilal is running low.
Squad24 Jul 2034
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.
Market24 Jul 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market24 Jul 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mehdi Kiani Dehkiani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Jul 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jul 2034
Nader Al-Sharari damages knee ligaments — 60 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market17 Jul 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad17 Jul 2034
“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-Hilal know it.
Market17 Jul 2034
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al-Nahda will make the call about Omar Al-Shammari this week. Al-Hilal have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jul 2034
Nader Al-Sharari damages knee ligaments — 67 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 67 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.
Squad10 Jul 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market10 Jul 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Jul 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jul 2034
Eden Cohen is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Boardroom10 Jul 2034
171% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Hilal
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jul 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nader Al-Sharari
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market3 Jul 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Market3 Jul 2034
Only the photograph left for Munif Doshi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Munif Doshi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
No signings allowed at Al-Hilal
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
Intake day at the Al-Hilal academy
6 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Market3 Jul 2034
Al-Hilal have made Ebube Duru available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom26 Jun 2034
The scrutiny sharpens at Al-Hilal
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Hilal is running low.
Squad26 Jun 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nader Al-Sharari
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Jun 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market26 Jun 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market26 Jun 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Jun 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jun 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nader Al-Sharari
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Jun 2034
Moran Waheb hands in a written request
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Market19 Jun 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dillan Solomons will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market19 Jun 2034
Yusuf Akçiçek wants to know where this is going
“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-Hilal hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jun 2034
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market12 Jun 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 Jun 2034
Only the photograph left for Moran Waheb
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Moran Waheb will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Jun 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom12 Jun 2034
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ali Torabi has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
In brief
-
Squad
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
-
Boardroom
193% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Hilal
-
Market
Al-Nahda are about to pick up the phone
-
Market
The Yusuf Akçiçek talk will not go away
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jun 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Fahad Al-Khaibari has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Jun 2034
The bid was some way short and Al-Hilal did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market5 Jun 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Jun 2034
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Hilal heard it as anything else.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
An order from above at Al-Hilal: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Market5 Jun 2034
Only the photograph left for Adel Khadhari
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adel Khadhari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
-
Squad
Théo Hernández falls out with a teammate over standards
-
Boardroom
No signings allowed at Al-Hilal
-
Boardroom
The Al-Hilal production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 May 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Boardroom29 May 2034
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Hilal
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market29 May 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Market29 May 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 May 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom29 May 2034
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Dillan Solomons has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 May 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Market22 May 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market22 May 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 May 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Boardroom22 May 2034
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Munif Doshi has agreed terms with Al-Khaleej for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad22 May 2034
Théo Hernández 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 May 2034
Only the photograph left for Moran Waheb
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Moran Waheb will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market15 May 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 May 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Squad15 May 2034
“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-Hilal are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom15 May 2034
Wages eat 216% of everything Al-Hilal earn
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 May 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market8 May 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 May 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad8 May 2034
Théo Hernández 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.
Boardroom8 May 2034
No signings allowed at Al-Hilal
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad8 May 2034
“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-Hilal, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom1 May 2034
The scrutiny sharpens at Al-Hilal
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Hilal is running low.
Market1 May 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Market1 May 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market1 May 2034
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Hilal heard it as anything else.
Squad1 May 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 May 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Apr 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Apr 2034
Adel Khadhari has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Apr 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Squad24 Apr 2034
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Abdulla Al-Hammadi is living that version at Al-Hilal, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad24 Apr 2034
Too much change too quickly at Al-Hilal
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Apr 2034
Only the photograph left for Moran Waheb
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Moran Waheb will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market17 Apr 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Apr 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad17 Apr 2034
Théo Hernández 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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2034
293% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Hilal
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.
Squad17 Apr 2034
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Apr 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market10 Apr 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 Apr 2034
Tobías Pantoja has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Apr 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Boardroom10 Apr 2034
Al-Hilal cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Apr 2034
Pressure builds in the Al-Hilal boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad3 Apr 2034
A fracture rules Davron Anvarov out for 22 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market3 Apr 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Apr 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market3 Apr 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Apr 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Mar 2034
A fracture rules Davron Anvarov out for 29 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market27 Mar 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Market27 Mar 2034
Only the photograph left for Adel Khadhari
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adel Khadhari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Mar 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Squad27 Mar 2034
“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-Hilal know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Mar 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yahaya Ibrahim
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad20 Mar 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market20 Mar 2034
Only the photograph left for Moran Waheb
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Moran Waheb will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market20 Mar 2034
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Mar 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad20 Mar 2034
Théo Hernández 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Mar 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yahaya Ibrahim
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market13 Mar 2034
Ebube Duru hands in a written request
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Market13 Mar 2034
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Hilal heard it as anything else.
Market13 Mar 2034
Only the photograph left for Tobías Pantoja
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tobías Pantoja will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Mar 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Mar 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yahaya Ibrahim
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom6 Mar 2034
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Hilal can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom6 Mar 2034
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Hilal
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market6 Mar 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad6 Mar 2034
568 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market6 Mar 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mehdi Kiani Dehkiani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Mar 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market6 Mar 2034
“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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2034
An order from above at Al-Hilal: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Feb 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yahaya Ibrahim
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market27 Feb 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market27 Feb 2034
Only the photograph left for Adel Khadhari
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adel Khadhari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Feb 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Feb 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Squad27 Feb 2034
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Feb 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yahaya Ibrahim
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market20 Feb 2034
Moran Waheb has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market20 Feb 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Feb 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad20 Feb 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad20 Feb 2034
Théo Hernández 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Feb 2034
Yahaya Ibrahim damages knee ligaments — 56 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 56 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.
Market13 Feb 2034
Moran Waheb hands in a written request
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Market13 Feb 2034
Only the photograph left for Tobías Pantoja
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tobías Pantoja will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Feb 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Feb 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Boardroom13 Feb 2034
Al-Hilal cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom6 Feb 2034
12 points gone: Al-Hilal in administration
This is the morning a town finds out what the accounts have been doing while it watched the football. The debt gets written down to something payable, and the football pays for it in points.
Squad6 Feb 2034
Yahaya Ibrahim damages knee ligaments — 63 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 63 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.
Market6 Feb 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad6 Feb 2034
Nasser Al-Enezi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Hilal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market6 Feb 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad6 Feb 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yassine Bounou and Al-Hilal agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Feb 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Boardroom6 Feb 2034
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Fahad Al-Qibli has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Player ratings6 Feb 2034
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Jan 2034
Yahaya Ibrahim damages knee ligaments — 70 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
Player ratings30 Jan 2034
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market30 Jan 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings30 Jan 2034
Darwin Núñez, 34, rolls back the years — 8.07
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.07 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market30 Jan 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Jan 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Jan 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Squad30 Jan 2034
Darwin Núñez is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.25 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match28 Jan 2034
Al-Hilal are at home on the road
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Jan 2034
Yahaya Ibrahim damages knee ligaments — 77 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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.
Market23 Jan 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings23 Jan 2034
Age has not caught Darwin Núñez yet — 7.99
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market23 Jan 2034
Yusuf Akçiçek wants to know where this is going
“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-Hilal hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad23 Jan 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Player ratings23 Jan 2034
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Jan 2034
Théo Hernández 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.
Squad23 Jan 2034
“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-Hilal know it.
Match21 Jan 2034
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Jan 2034
Yahaya Ibrahim damages knee ligaments — 86 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 86 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.
Market16 Jan 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market16 Jan 2034
Al-Hilal say no — this time
The offer from Al-Nahda for Jesús Cano 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.
Squad16 Jan 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad16 Jan 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jan 2034
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Market16 Jan 2034
The phone has started ringing about Adel Khadhari again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Njoom. Al-Hilal are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match14 Jan 2034
Three points for Al-Hilal, 1‑0 the final word against Al-Wehda in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Boardroom16 Jan 2034
Al-Hilal cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Jan 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yahaya Ibrahim
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market9 Jan 2034
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market9 Jan 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Jan 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Jan 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Darwin Núñez commits to Al-Hilal for another 2 years.
Squad9 Jan 2034
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad9 Jan 2034
Théo Hernández 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.
Market9 Jan 2034
The name of Tobías Pantoja has come up in conversations Al-Hilal were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match7 Jan 2034
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Jan 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yahaya Ibrahim
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom2 Jan 2034
Al-Hilal come out of administration
The supervision lifts, the embargo goes with it, and the club can sign a player again. Nobody involved wants to describe the year it took, and nobody involved will forget it.
Squad2 Jan 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings2 Jan 2034
Darwin Núñez, 34, rolls back the years — 8.17
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.17 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market2 Jan 2034
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings2 Jan 2034
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Jan 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Darwin Núñez commits to Al-Hilal for another 2 years.
Market2 Jan 2034
Al-Hilal say no — this time
The offer from Al-Nahda for Khalid Al-Shammari 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.
Squad2 Jan 2034
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Dec 2033
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yahaya Ibrahim
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings26 Dec 2033
Successful dribbles: 41. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market26 Dec 2033
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad26 Dec 2033
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Hilal may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings26 Dec 2033
Darwin Núñez, 34, rolls back the years — 8.24
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad26 Dec 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Boardroom26 Dec 2033
Wages eat 336% of everything Al-Hilal earn
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.
Squad26 Dec 2033
Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Match24 Dec 2033
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Darwin Núñez. 1‑0 against Al-Hazem, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Dec 2033
Yahaya Ibrahim damages knee ligaments — 116 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
Match17 Dec 2033
0‑3 to Al-Ahli, 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.
Market19 Dec 2033
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Dec 2033
Only the photograph left for Adel Khadhari
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adel Khadhari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Dec 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Dec 2033
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Squad19 Dec 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sergej Milinković-Savić, and the manager let it.
Boardroom19 Dec 2033
Al-Hilal cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Boardroom19 Dec 2033
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Dec 2033
Yahaya Ibrahim damages knee ligaments — 123 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 123 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.
Market12 Dec 2033
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad12 Dec 2033
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Hilal may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market12 Dec 2033
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mehdi Kiani Dehkiani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings12 Dec 2033
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Dec 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
-
Squad
Théo Hernández falls out with a teammate over standards
-
Match
Point won or two lost for Al-Hilal?
-
Boardroom
The Al-Hilal production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Dec 2033
Al-Hilal win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Al-Ta'ee will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Squad5 Dec 2033
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings5 Dec 2033
Age has not caught Darwin Núñez yet — 8.24
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market5 Dec 2033
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Hilal heard it as anything else.
Boardroom5 Dec 2033
The Al-Hilal board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Market5 Dec 2033
Dan Glazer hands in a written request
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Dec 2033
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sergej Milinković-Savić and Al-Hilal agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Dec 2033
Silvère Ganvoula 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.
Match3 Dec 2033
Al-Ta'ee made Al-Hilal work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Nov 2033
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match26 Nov 2033
No end in sight to Al-Hilal's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Hilal has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Nov 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad28 Nov 2033
Théo Hernández 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.
Player ratings28 Nov 2033
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom28 Nov 2033
339% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Hilal
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Nov 2033
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings21 Nov 2033
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market21 Nov 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match19 Nov 2033
No end in sight to Al-Hilal's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Hilal has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Nov 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Nov 2033
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Match19 Nov 2033
1‑2 to Al-Khaleej, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom21 Nov 2033
Al-Hilal cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad21 Nov 2033
“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-Hilal know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Nov 2033
Al-Fateh ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Match12 Nov 2033
Beaten 0‑3 by Al-Taawoun, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market14 Nov 2033
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market14 Nov 2033
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Nov 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad14 Nov 2033
“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-Hilal know it.
Squad14 Nov 2033
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings14 Nov 2033
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Nov 2033
Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Nov 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Nov 2033
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mahmud Jo'raboyev has just signed for Al-Hilal, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Nov 2033
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Player ratings7 Nov 2033
Crysencio Summerville was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings7 Nov 2033
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Nov 2033
Yassine Bounou has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al-Hilal 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.
Match5 Nov 2033
A 1‑1 draw with Al-Fateh leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market7 Nov 2033
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Market7 Nov 2033
Al-Hilal shop where it costs nothing
Mahmud Jo'raboyev signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Oct 2033
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Al-Shabab had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Al-Hilal did not stop to explain themselves.
Market31 Oct 2033
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings31 Oct 2033
Théo Hernández, 36, rolls back the years — 7.87
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad31 Oct 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad31 Oct 2033
Théo Hernández 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.
Boardroom31 Oct 2033
293% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Hilal
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.
Match29 Oct 2033
Three points for Al-Hilal, 1‑0 the final word against Al-Shabab in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings31 Oct 2033
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad31 Oct 2033
Jesús Cano wants to finish where he started
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Al-Hilal now know that too.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Oct 2033
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 Oct 2033
Only the photograph left for Adel Khadhari
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adel Khadhari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Oct 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Oct 2033
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Boardroom24 Oct 2033
Al-Hilal cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Player ratings24 Oct 2033
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Oct 2033
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.
Match22 Oct 2033
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Al-Ittihad defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Market24 Oct 2033
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Hilal know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings17 Oct 2033
Successful dribbles: 45. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Oct 2033
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market17 Oct 2033
Moran Waheb hands in a written request
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings17 Oct 2033
Darwin Núñez, 34, rolls back the years — 8.20
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.20 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market17 Oct 2033
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mehdi Kiani Dehkiani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Oct 2033
Théo Hernández 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Oct 2033
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.
Market10 Oct 2033
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad10 Oct 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom10 Oct 2033
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Faisal Darisi has agreed terms with Al-Fateh for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market10 Oct 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad10 Oct 2033
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match1 Oct 2033
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Hajer spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings3 Oct 2033
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market3 Oct 2033
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings3 Oct 2033
Darwin Núñez, 34, rolls back the years — 8.18
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.18 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad3 Oct 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Boardroom3 Oct 2033
283% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Hilal
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.
Squad3 Oct 2033
Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Match1 Oct 2033
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Darwin Núñez. 1‑0 against Hajer, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad3 Oct 2033
28 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings26 Sep 2033
Successful dribbles: 46. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Sep 2033
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market26 Sep 2033
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market26 Sep 2033
Adel Khadhari has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Sep 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Sep 2033
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Match24 Sep 2033
0‑1 to Al-Hazem, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom26 Sep 2033
Al-Hilal cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad26 Sep 2033
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Sep 2033
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings19 Sep 2033
Nobody could get near Eden Cohen
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match14 Sep 2033
Cup progress for Al-Hilal
A 1‑0 win over Al-Nahda, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market19 Sep 2033
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings19 Sep 2033
Nasser Al-Enezi, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings19 Sep 2033
Age has not caught Darwin Núñez yet — 8.07
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market19 Sep 2033
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mehdi Kiani Dehkiani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Sep 2033
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad19 Sep 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Sep 2033
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Sep 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings12 Sep 2033
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Sep 2033
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Squad12 Sep 2033
“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-Hilal are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market12 Sep 2033
Al-Batin are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Al-Hilal will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Sep 2033
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings5 Sep 2033
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market5 Sep 2033
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings5 Sep 2033
Darwin Núñez, 34, rolls back the years — 8.16
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.16 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market5 Sep 2033
“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.
Boardroom5 Sep 2033
An order from above at Al-Hilal: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Squad5 Sep 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Market5 Sep 2033
Zayid Sultan has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Sep 2033
Théo Hernández 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Aug 2033
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market29 Aug 2033
Only the photograph left for Adel Khadhari
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adel Khadhari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Aug 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings29 Aug 2033
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market29 Aug 2033
“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.
Squad29 Aug 2033
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Market29 Aug 2033
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Hilal have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Boardroom29 Aug 2033
Al-Hilal cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad29 Aug 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Moran Waheb, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Aug 2033
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Hilal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings22 Aug 2033
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings22 Aug 2033
A brace, and Darwin Núñez takes the afternoon — 8.41
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Darwin Núñez provided it, and the 8.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market22 Aug 2033
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad22 Aug 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Market22 Aug 2033
Only the photograph left for Turki Al-Nemer
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Turki Al-Nemer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match20 Aug 2033
A 3‑2 win over Al-Khaleej, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad22 Aug 2033
Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Squad22 Aug 2033
Théo Hernández has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al-Hilal 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Aug 2033
Darwin Núñez, 34, rolls back the years — 8.37
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.37 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market15 Aug 2033
The deal that would have taken Jesús Cano to Al-Mojzel has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Al-Hilal with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market15 Aug 2033
Al-Hilal say no — this time
The offer from Al-Nahda for Adel Khadhari 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.
Squad15 Aug 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Aug 2033
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Boardroom15 Aug 2033
10 academy players handed senior numbers at Al-Hilal
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market15 Aug 2033
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rashid Al-Otaibi 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.
Market15 Aug 2033
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Salman Al-Sultan 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.
Match13 Aug 2033
Three points for Al-Hilal, 1‑0 the final word against Al-Taawoun in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Aug 2033
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Aug 2033
538 appearances across 9 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad8 Aug 2033
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Théo Hernández commits to Al-Hilal for another 2 years.
Squad8 Aug 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market8 Aug 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Aug 2033
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dan Atzili is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Aug 2033
538 appearances across 9 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Al-Hilal know what they have.
Squad1 Aug 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad1 Aug 2033
Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Boardroom1 Aug 2033
No signings allowed at Al-Hilal
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad1 Aug 2033
At 33 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Market1 Aug 2033
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Al-Hilal will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Jul 2033
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Hilal
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad25 Jul 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jul 2033
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Squad25 Jul 2033
At 35 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Market25 Jul 2033
The name of Khalid Al-Shammari has come up in conversations Al-Hilal were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad25 Jul 2033
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Jul 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 Jul 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad18 Jul 2033
Théo Hernández 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.
Squad18 Jul 2033
A move Eden Cohen would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Eden Cohen is living that version at Al-Hilal, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad18 Jul 2033
Ahmed Yahaya has improved at 33, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Market18 Jul 2033
The Jesús Cano conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al-Mojzel will make the call about Jesús Cano this week. Al-Hilal have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jul 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom11 Jul 2033
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Zayid Sultan has agreed terms with Hajer for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market11 Jul 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market11 Jul 2033
“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.
Squad11 Jul 2033
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dan Atzili is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom11 Jul 2033
Wages eat 188% of everything Al-Hilal earn
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 Jul 2033
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad4 Jul 2033
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rúben Neves and Al-Hilal agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Jul 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad4 Jul 2033
Théo Hernández 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.
Boardroom4 Jul 2033
No signings allowed at Al-Hilal
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom4 Jul 2033
Intake day at the Al-Hilal academy
6 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom27 Jun 2033
Pressure builds in the Al-Hilal boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market27 Jun 2033
Al-Hilal say no — this time
The offer from Al-Mojzel for Turki Al-Nemer 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.
Squad27 Jun 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market27 Jun 2033
The name of Adel Khadhari has come up in conversations Al-Hilal were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad27 Jun 2033
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Squad27 Jun 2033
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market20 Jun 2033
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market20 Jun 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad20 Jun 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad20 Jun 2033
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad20 Jun 2033
Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Squad20 Jun 2033
Théo Hernández has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al-Hilal 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Jun 2033
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market13 Jun 2033
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad13 Jun 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Jun 2033
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Théo Hernández 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.
Boardroom13 Jun 2033
Wages eat 166% of everything Al-Hilal earn
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.
Market13 Jun 2033
He is 18, and nobody at Al-Hilal signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Jun 2033
A fracture rules Silvère Ganvoula out for 25 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom6 Jun 2033
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Hilal can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market6 Jun 2033
Itai Danor hands in a written request
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Market6 Jun 2033
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Hilal heard it as anything else.
Boardroom6 Jun 2033
An order from above at Al-Hilal: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Squad6 Jun 2033
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Darwin Núñez and Al-Hilal agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Jun 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Boardroom6 Jun 2033
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Kurniawan Ajie has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Market6 Jun 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
In brief
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Squad
Théo Hernández falls out with a teammate over standards
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Boardroom
No signings allowed at Al-Hilal
-
Market
Al-Njoom are about to pick up the phone
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 May 2033
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom30 May 2033
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Hilal
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market30 May 2033
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 May 2033
A fracture rules Silvère Ganvoula out for 41 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market23 May 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 May 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 May 2033
A fracture rules Silvère Ganvoula out for 48 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 May 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom16 May 2033
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Turki Al-Nemer has agreed terms with Al-Fateh for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 May 2033
A fracture rules Silvère Ganvoula out for 55 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad9 May 2033
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sergej Milinković-Savić and Al-Hilal agree another 2 years.
Squad9 May 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 May 2033
A fracture rules Silvère Ganvoula out for 62 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom2 May 2033
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Hilal
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market2 May 2033
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Apr 2033
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market25 Apr 2033
Adel Khadhari has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Apr 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Apr 2033
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Apr 2033
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Apr 2033
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Apr 2033
A fracture rules Silvère Ganvoula out for 85 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad11 Apr 2033
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad11 Apr 2033
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Apr 2033
A fracture rules Silvère Ganvoula out for 92 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Hilal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom4 Apr 2033
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Hilal
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad4 Apr 2033
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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
-
Squad
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
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Squad
A last season at home is what Jesús Cano is after
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Boardroom
Al-Hilal sign a deal worth $1.0M a year
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Market
The Yusuf Akçiçek talk will not go away
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Mar 2033
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Mar 2033
“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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Mar 2033
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Hilal may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.