Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ittihad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Ittihad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Muhannad Al-Shanqiti 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 Dion Lopy has written the date down.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Richard Ríos has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
The agreement at Najran has 19 days left in it, with 24 appearances to weigh. Three doors: keep him, sell him, lend him again — and none of them stays open long.
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.
6 shut-outs in 27 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Hamed Al-Shanqeeti has been having a lot of them.
5 goals in 9 games at Al Ahli — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ittihad updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Position 6, 44 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
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. Abdulhadi Matari is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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 6 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
23 appearances at Emirates Club and the goals have stopped going in. Al-Ittihad lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rakan Kaabi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Turki Hazazi has agreed terms with Al-Fayha for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Ahmed Sharahili 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.
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.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
6 clean sheets from 26 appearances at Al-Jeel. 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.
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-Ghamdi has written the date down.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. George Ilenikhena is 20, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Dion Lopy has written the date down.
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.
4 goals in 8 games at Al Ahli — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ittihad updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Degerfors had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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-Ittihad know it.
Mahamadou Doumbia 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 Ahmed Sharahili trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Ittihad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The name of Muhannad Al-Shanqiti has come up in conversations Al-Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Ahmed Al-Ghamdi 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 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-Ittihad know it.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Abdulaziz Al-Bishi scored in the 89th minute, Al-Faisaly had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Al-Ittihad took the lot.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abdulaziz Al-Bishi provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Ittihad has been clear about where Abdulaziz Al-Bishi stands, which is more than many ever get.
1‑5 to Al-Hilal, 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Youssef En-Nesyri reports back to Al-Ittihad with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
6 goals in one match, Youssef En-Nesyri on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Salman Al-Subaie after 1‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Al-Ittihad pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
In brief
MarketA year in the wrong dressing room for Faisal Al-Essa
“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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Ittihad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Ittihad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Al-Ittihad close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 4 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Al-Ittihad and Al-Ra'ed, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The offer from Foolad for Youssef En-Nesyri 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 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmed Al-Julaydan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Nassr have kept their man, and Al-Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
7.60, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Al-Ittihad had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Salman Al-Subaie kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The name of Mukhtar Ali has come up in conversations Al-Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Mahamadou Doumbia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Al-Ittihad asked and Baniyas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yaseen Al-Zubaidi and Al-Ittihad agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Youssef En-Nesyri provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Nahda waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ittihad is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mohammed Fallatah has agreed terms with Ohod for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Damac have kept their man, and Al-Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
0‑3 against Al-Qadisiyah, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
River Plate paid $3.2M 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 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.
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 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Houssem Aouar. 2‑0 against Hajer, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.41. 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stephane Keller and Al-Ittihad agree another 4 years.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. George Ilenikhena has come out of that comparison in the side, and Al-Ittihad have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Predrag Rajković wants continental football; whether Al-Ittihad can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
Half the programme played, position 5, 23 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Salman Al-Subaie left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
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.
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 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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Abdulaziz Al-Bishi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Ittihad needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
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.
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Salman Al-Subaie after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Youssef En-Nesyri scored in the 85th minute, Al-Shabab had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Al-Ittihad took the lot.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 7.12, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Al-Hilal 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.
In brief
SquadGeorge Ilenikhena is the division's best young player this month
Al-Ra'ed will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Ittihad were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.50 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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 before the ground had finished arriving. Al-Ra'ed spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Marked 7.46 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. George Ilenikhena 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.
“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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Salman Al-Subaie could afford to be generous.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdulaziz Al-Shammari is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Mahamadou Doumbia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Al-Ittihad man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Saleh Al-Shehri was the best thing in any of them.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dion Lopy signs something — a contract at Al-Ittihad or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Richard Ríos has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Saleh Al-Shehri provided it, and the 8.78 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Saleh Al-Shehri. 2‑1 against Al-Taawoun, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Danilo Pereira has come out of that comparison in the side, and Al-Ittihad have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout5 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.” Salman Al-Subaie, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
In brief
The dugoutDion Lopy dropped after a run of poor form
“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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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: Youssef En-Nesyri. 2‑0 against Najran, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Salman Al-Subaie on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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 team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“I 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Faisal Al-Qahtani has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
“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 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Salman Al-Subaie to a room that had heard them before.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
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.
Youssef En-Nesyri had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Al-Nassr were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
The offer from Ohod for Rakan Kaabi 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.
Al-Ittihad offered $260.0K; Al-Nassr 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdulaziz Al-Shammari is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Feyenoord had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Ittihad can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Al-Fayha 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $272.0K — a club that wants Salem Al-Najdi enough to be asked twice.
Al-Ittihad have gone to Al-Nassr 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-Ittihad offered $290.0K; Al-Shabab 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 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $220.0K — a club that wants Mohammed Sulaiman enough to be asked twice.
$290.0K on the table at Al-Shabab. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$220.0K was the most the club would pay and Al-Ahli 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.
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.
3 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Al-Wehda spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Mojzel had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 shirt still fits. Ahmed Bamasud is back at Al-Ittihad, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Salman Al-Subaie after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Hamed Al-Shanqeeti had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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 $29.8M does not replace that by itself.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.29 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mohammed Al-Juhani is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hassan Al-Dawsari 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.
Houssem Aouar 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.
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.
“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 offer from Twente for Steven Bergwijn was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Add another name to the list: FC Nantes have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Youssef En-Nesyri. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
“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.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work