Position 2, 17 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Faisal Al-Ghamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑1, Sami Al-Ahmadi could afford to be generous.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
The dugoutStephane Keller is still being punished for one mistake
Danilo Pereira and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I did not go to Al-Saudi Al-Watani to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ittihad and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ittihad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Al-Khaleej next, and one man in the Al-Ittihad dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Al-Ittihad have no good answer.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Al-Ittihad will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A side in position 7 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
Two goals and a mark of 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Danilo Pereira was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.06, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Two goals and a mark of 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jordan Longhi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Najran spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ittihad, and 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
“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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
7 new faces, and Al-Ittihad are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ittihad, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sami Al-Ahmadi after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Stephane Keller's mistake
A brace, and Houssem Aouar takes the afternoon — 8.40
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Houssem Aouar provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Al-Taawoun for Hassan Kadish was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roger Fernandes did not need any: 8.31, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Add another name to the list: FCSB have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Roger Fernandes. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ahli have kept their man, and Al-Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
7 goals in one match, Houssem Aouar on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Ittihad and Al-Nassr.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Marwan Al-Sahafi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Adulrahman Al-Shammari is living that version at Al-Ittihad, and it tends to show in the first month.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 30 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al-Ittihad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Danilo Pereira was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Ittihad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roger Fernandes did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Add another name to the list: VfB Stuttgart have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Predrag Rajković. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
7.93, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdulaziz Al-Shammari is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
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.
Al-Ittihad have more foreign players than the form allows, and he is the one without a place on it. He will train with a side he is not permitted to play for until the next window.
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ittihad, and 2 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
Danilo Pereira and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Dion Lopy commits to Al-Ittihad for another 4 years.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
2 academy players handed senior numbers at Al-Ittihad
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Saad Al-Harbi 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hamad Al-Otaibi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Al-Ittihad have more foreign players than the form allows, and he is the one without a place on it. He will train with a side he is not permitted to play for until the next window.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Dion Lopy
A season average of 7.36 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Al-Ittihad know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Jordan Longhi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ittihad, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“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-Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faisal Al-Ghamdi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ittihad, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
“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-Ittihad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The offer from Al-Jeel for Hassan Kadish was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Dion Lopy 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.
Add another name to the list: Al-Orobah have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mohammed Al-Absi. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Faisal Al-Ghamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ittihad, and 0 appearances in 7 say he has earned the hearing.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Batin had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Danilo Pereira and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Al-Ittihad asked and Al-Ahli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I watch every Al-Ittihad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Saudi Al-Watani runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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-Ittihad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Al-Ittihad would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“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-Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
Position 2, 58 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Ittihad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Ta'ee had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The name of Predrag Rajković has come up in conversations Al-Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.36, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Danilo Pereira was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faisal Al-Ghamdi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Ittihad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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-Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
$720.0K on the table at Al-Fayha. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Ittihad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Shabab keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ettifaq have kept their man, and Al-Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Al-Nassr this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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-Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Mohammed Al-Absi again, and this time the name on the line is Baniyas. Al-Ittihad are listening politely and promising nothing.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Ittihad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Al-Ittihad have gone to Al-Shabab with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Al-Ra'ed paid $4.8M and Al-Ittihad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“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-Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Al-Ettifaq, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ahli have kept their man, and Al-Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ahmed Al-Ghamdi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Ittihad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Danilo Pereira 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.
$130.0K was the most the club would pay and Al-Riyadh were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Al-Ittihad asked and Al-Nassr said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Al-Ahli have accepted the money. What Al-Ittihad do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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-Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Al-Ittihad have gone to Al-Fayha with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $7.9M — a club that wants Feras Al-Brikan enough to be asked twice.
Mohammed Barnawi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Richard Ríos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not 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.
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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saad Al-Mosa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ittihad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Danilo Pereira and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ittihad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ahmed Al-Ghamdi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jan-Carlo Simić has written the date down.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Al-Ittihad will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“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-Ittihad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Jordan Longhi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Ittihad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
BoardroomThe Al-Ittihad board put their names to it
Dion Lopy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dion Lopy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
“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-Ittihad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Dion Lopy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ittihad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
30 appearances at Al-Shoulla and the goals have stopped going in. Al-Ittihad lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Danilo Pereira and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ittihad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hamed Al-Ghamdi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Youssef En-Nesyri has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Ittihad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ittihad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Predrag Rajković’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
The agreement at Al-Mojzel has 26 days left in it, with 28 appearances to weigh. Three doors: keep him, sell him, lend him again — and none of them stays open long.
In brief
BoardroomThe Al-Ittihad board put their names to it
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Predrag Rajković is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Youssef En-Nesyri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ittihad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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-Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jordan Longhi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
6 shut-outs in 30 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Faisal Al-Essa has been having a lot of them.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ittihad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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-Ittihad heard it as anything else.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Abdulhadi Matari commits to Al-Ittihad for another 3 years.
Squad29 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Al-Ittihad are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ahmed Al-Julaydan has written the date down.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Al-Ittihad will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Rayan Al-Dossary may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.36, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dion Lopy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Ittihad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
5 clean sheets from 29 appearances at Al-Shoulla. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“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-Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdulaziz Al-Shammari is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Ittihad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Dion Lopy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ittihad, and 9 appearances in 31 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Ittihad told Ibrahim Mahnashi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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-Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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-Ittihad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Roger Fernandes is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Al-Ittihad will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Position 2 on 58 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“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-Ittihad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Danilo Pereira was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Farhah Al-Shamrani and Al-Ittihad agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Youssef En-Nesyri provided it, and the 8.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Roger Fernandes, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.46
A mark of 8.46 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.
Danilo Pereira and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 8.28 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“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-Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Turki Hazazi has agreed terms with Al-Riyadh for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Ittihad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roger Fernandes did not need any: 8.45, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dion Lopy scored, was marked 7.64, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“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.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ittihad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Al-Ra'ed will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Ittihad were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A brace, and Houssem Aouar takes the afternoon — 8.37
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Houssem Aouar provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ahmed Al-Julaydan had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roger Fernandes did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Al-Ittihad asked and Al-Ahli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Al-Ittihad close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I 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.
Position 2, 48 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
$2.9M on the table at Al-Ahli. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Al-Ahli moved on, Saleh Al-Shehri reports back to Al-Ittihad, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.30, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Ittihad have done the hard part with Monza, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Houssem Aouar
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Jeel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ittihad is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The name of Faisal Al-Ghamdi has come up in conversations Al-Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Fayha is saying, and nobody at Al-Ittihad is enjoying the guessing.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mohammed Fallatah has agreed terms with Al-Mojzel for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Al-Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Ittihad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Roger Fernandes, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.17
A mark of 8.17 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Al-Hilal have accepted the money. What Al-Ittihad do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
RC Lens paid $6.0M and Al-Ittihad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The name of Youssef En-Nesyri has come up in conversations Al-Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The deal with Al-Riyadh is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Al-Ittihad will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The phone has started ringing about George Ilenikhena again, and this time the name on the line is RC Lens. Al-Ittihad are listening politely and promising nothing.
Danilo Pereira was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Ittihad can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Ittihad has been clear about where Muhannad Al-Shanqiti stands, which is more than many ever get.
The offer from Botafogo for Predrag Rajković 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.
6 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.80 for the rest of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stephane Keller will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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-Ittihad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
A season average of 7.26 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Al-Ittihad know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Al-Ittihad scored in the 94th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Roger Fernandes, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.82
A mark of 7.82 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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Danilo Pereira. 2‑0 against Al-Qadisiyah, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.35. 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.
“I did not go to Ohod to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ittihad and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Sami Al-Ahmadi, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I watch every Al-Ittihad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Police Union runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Youssef En-Nesyri in the middle of it, and Hajer unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Houssem Aouar at his very best
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roger Fernandes did not need any: 8.27, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Youssef En-Nesyri wants continental football; whether Al-Ittihad can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.22, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Position 3, 29 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Something was said to Ahmed Al-Ghamdi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Al-Faisaly will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Ittihad were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Roger Fernandes, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.48
A mark of 8.48 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.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match21 Nov 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Al-Ittihad. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Sami Al-Ahmadi could afford to be generous.
7 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Ittihad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Al-Faisaly next, and one man in the Al-Ittihad dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Dion Lopy has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
“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.
Danilo Pereira was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I watch every Al-Ittihad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ohod runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sami Al-Ahmadi after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Al-Ittihad 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.
“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-Ittihad heard it as anything else.
A season average of 7.10 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Al-Ittihad know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Rayan Al-Dossary has just signed for Al-Ittihad, and for once the answer mattered.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Al-Ittihad will try not to make too much of it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rayan Al-Dossary and Al-Ittihad agree another 3 years.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ittihad, and 7 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Roger Fernandes, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.54
A mark of 8.54 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Roger Fernandes has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Al-Shabab next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.13, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Sami Al-Ahmadi, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
21 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.82 for the rest of it.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mohammed Barnawi is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Dion Lopy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Sami Al-Ahmadi could afford to be generous.
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.
“I did not go to Ohod to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ittihad and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Squad12 Oct 2026
5 new faces, and Al-Ittihad are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Ittihad. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Al-Ittihad know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Ittihad, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dion Lopy provided it, and the 8.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roger Fernandes did not need any: 8.40, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dion Lopy. 3‑1 against Najran, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Roger Fernandes has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Al-Ittihad can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
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.
“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-Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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-Ittihad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Predrag Rajković, and the manager let it.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Al-Ittihad dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Richard Ríos is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Al-Diriyah go through and Al-Ittihad go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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-Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Predrag Rajković: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roger Fernandes did not need any: 8.17, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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-Ittihad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Youssef En-Nesyri. 2‑0 against Al-Nassr, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Nahda had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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-Ittihad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 12 gone
That is the business done at Al-Ittihad until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Al-Nassr moved on, Talal Haji reports back to Al-Ittihad, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Hassan Kadish is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Ittihad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Add another name to the list: Spartak Moscow have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Predrag Rajković. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Fayha have kept their man, and Al-Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Al-Ittihad offered $1.2M; Al-Qadisiyah said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.2M — a club that wants Ibrahim Mahnashi enough to be asked twice.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Jeel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ittihad is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Batin had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Steven Bergwijn was one of the reasons people came, and $30.2M does not replace that by itself.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Roger Fernandes has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Al-Ghamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Steven Bergwijn was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
“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-Ittihad heard it as anything else.
The name of George Ilenikhena has come up in conversations Al-Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Add another name to the list: Utrecht have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Steven Bergwijn. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
The offer from IF Elfsborg for Saleh Al-Shehri was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Ittihad heard it as anything else.
Danilo Pereira and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faisal Al-Ghamdi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.