Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Makhir Al-Rashidi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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 Sabri Dahal is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raffaele Sibilio 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 Saleh Al-Shehri has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saleh Al-Shehri signs something — a contract at Al-Ittihad or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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.
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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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 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.
“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 was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
7 goals in 25 games at Al-Shoulla — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ittihad updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Paulo Oliveira's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Position 3 on 39 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Position 3, 39 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.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Saleh Al-Shehri
A brace, and Houssem Aouar takes the afternoon — 8.36
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Houssem Aouar provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Al-Orobah will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Aboubacar Doumbia has pre-agreed a move to Al-Ittihad, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
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.
The offer from Al-Saudi Al-Watani for Fawaz Al-Soqoor 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.
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 is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Houssem Aouar had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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 offer from Al-Orobah for Sabri Dahal 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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Al-Ittihad close the window on a squad of their own making
2 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.
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.
Al-Ittihad asked and Al-Qadisiyah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Al-Saudi Al-Watani have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fawaz Al-Soqoor. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Al-Ahli paid $6.7M 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dion Lopy scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The phone has started ringing about Sabri Dahal again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Orobah. Al-Ittihad are listening politely and promising nothing.
3 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.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Legia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Houssem Aouar. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
1 for Abubacarr Sedi Kinteh, marked 7.84, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Al-Ittihad have gone to Al-Ahli 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Farhah Al-Shamrani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Adnan Al-Bishri has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“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.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sabri Dahal did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Al-Ittihad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Ettifaq, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
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.
The name of Abubacarr Sedi Kinteh has come up in conversations Al-Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
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.
The offer went to Al-Ahli 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Ahli is saying, and nobody at Al-Ittihad is enjoying the guessing.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohammed Al-Mahasnah and Al-Ittihad agree another 3 years.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Al-Ittihad have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Al-Ittihad had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nawaf Al-Aqidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nawaf Al-Aqidi 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 1‑0, Yasser Al-Sheikh could afford to be generous.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Yasser Al-Sheikh to a room that had heard them before.
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.
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.
“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.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Al-Ittihad man
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Houssem Aouar decided nobody was going anywhere. Al-Qadisiyah had no time left to answer.
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nawaf Al-Aqidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Sabri Dahal 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Al-Qadisiyah were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Yasser Al-Sheikh on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Houssem Aouar will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Al-Ittihad escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
A brace, and Houssem Aouar takes the afternoon — 8.21
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Houssem Aouar provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nawaf Al-Aqidi 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.
Something was said to Dion Lopy and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Successful dribbles: 37. 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.
“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 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nawaf Al-Aqidi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Houssem Aouar was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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.
Minute 91, against Al-Fateh, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“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 and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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-Fateh 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.
Hajer go through and Al-Ittihad go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nawaf Al-Aqidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Marked 4.32. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Karim Ashraf
1 for Mario Mitaj, marked 7.96, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Georges-Kévin Nkoudou has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 87% of everything Al-Ittihad earn
“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.
“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.
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 7.93 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nawaf Al-Aqidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Raffaele Sibilio has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nawaf Al-Aqidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Yasser Al-Sheikh to a room that had heard them before.
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Paulo Oliveira's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Petek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Al-Ettifaq 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raffaele Sibilio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have 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.
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 1‑0, Yasser Al-Sheikh could afford to be generous.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nawaf Al-Aqidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Houssem Aouar and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
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.
“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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Najran had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nawaf Al-Aqidi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutPaulo Oliveira is still being punished for one mistake
A 1‑0 win over Al-Saudi Al-Watani, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
$580.0K 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.
The medical room confirms 29 days on the sidelines for Saad Al-Mosa, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad11 Sep 2028
10 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 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.
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.
“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.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Ittihad has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 22 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.
“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.
$580.0K 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.
17 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Al-Shoulla for Paulo Oliveira 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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nawaf Al-Aqidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Add another name to the list: Al-Jeel have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fawaz Al-Soqoor. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
24 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Al-Ittihad have gone to Al-Ahli 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.
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.
The name of Paulo Oliveira has come up in conversations Al-Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Al Fujairah for Abubacarr Sedi Kinteh 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dion Lopy scored, was marked 7.63, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Al-Ittihad moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Yasser Al-Sheikh, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
The deal with Al-Ra'ed 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Al-Ittihad had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Juve Stabia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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-Shabab paid $120.0K 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nawaf Al-Aqidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Al-Ittihad asked and Dolomiti Bellunesi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Saudi Al-Watani waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ittihad is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The chase for Wesley ended with $6.2M changing hands and Al-Nassr out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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 medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Ahmed Al-Julaydan, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Jan Petek falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
Al-Ittihad and Al-Nassr have settled on $6.2M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
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.
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 offered $560.0K; 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 name of Faisal Al-Essa has come up in conversations Al-Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Ittihad have done the hard part with Vis Pesaro, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“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.
Al-Ittihad offered $140.0K; 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 109 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulaziz Al-Bishi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The fee is $1.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Al-Nassr drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jan Petek is living that version at Al-Ittihad, and it tends to show in the first month.
Al-Ittihad offered $130.0K; Al-Hilal 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.
Jason was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dolomiti Bellunesi have kept their man, and Al-Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 118 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
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.
Al-Ittihad and Al-Nassr have settled on $1.2M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The name of Houssem Aouar has come up in conversations Al-Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Al-Ittihad have gone to Al-Riyadh 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 have gone to Al-Hilal 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.
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.
“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 shaken hands with Al-Diriyah; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Ittihad have done the hard part with Stade Lavallois, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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 offered $160.0K; Al-Ettifaq 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 easiest signature of my career.” Álvaro Medrán and Al-Ittihad agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad26 Jun 2028
9 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Roger Fernandes was one of the reasons people came, and $23.8M does not replace that by itself.
Najran 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.
$1.1M was the most the club would pay and Al-Shabab were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The offer went to Al-Diriyah 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.
Al-Ittihad asked and Al-Shabab 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.” Makhir Al-Rashidi and Al-Ittihad agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Al-Ittihad have gone to Al-Ettifaq 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $5.4M — a club that wants Morlaye Sylla enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Damac this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The 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.
The deal with Al-Shabab 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.
“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 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.” Ahmed Al-Julaydan and Al-Ittihad agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Unai Hernández has his answer from Al-Ittihad; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
30 appearances and 14 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
10 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
4 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Farhah Al-Shamrani 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Al-Ittihad have had the benefit of it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saleh Al-Shehri signs something — a contract at Al-Ittihad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aarón Martín is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Al-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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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 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.
Something was said to Mario Mitaj and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saleh Al-Shehri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saleh Al-Shehri signs something — a contract at Al-Ittihad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Faisal Nahet is on 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.
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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aarón Martín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Al-Ittihad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Qadisiyah 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.
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 Abdulrahman Al-Harthi is on it.
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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rafi Al-Ruwaili and Al-Ittihad agree another 1 years.
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 Abdulelah Al-Malki is on it.
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.
“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.
“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.
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.
“22 caps was 22 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 34 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Al-Ittihad.
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.
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 Younes El Bahraoui is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aarón Martín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Paulo Oliveira's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saleh Al-Shehri signs something — a contract at Al-Ittihad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulaziz Al-Bishi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Aarón Martín falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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 Abdulrahman Al-Harthi is on it.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Al-Ittihad that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 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.
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.
Something was said to Aarón Martín and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Ittihad, another week without a signature from Abdulaziz Al-Bishi.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 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.
14 goals in 27 games at Najran — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ittihad updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aarón Martín 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
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.
Market6 Mar 2028
Faisal Al-Essa returns from a loan that taught him nothing
0 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
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.
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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulrahman Al-Obaid will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
26 appearances away from home and 13 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Roger Fernandes was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ittihad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulaziz Al-Bishi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Saudi Al-Watani waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ittihad is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Roger Fernandes reports back to Al-Ittihad with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 5 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.
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 is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-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.
“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.
“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.
Sabri Dahal is 19, and Al-Ittihad have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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.
Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal have settled on $3.6M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Dion Lopy will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Al-Ittihad escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Al-Ahli paid $9.4M 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.
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 7.91 for the rest of it.
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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Wehda have kept their man, and Al-Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Houssem Aouar
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.
Al-Fateh 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.
“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 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The name of Abdulaziz Al-Bishi has come up in conversations Al-Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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. Al-Diriyah have kept their man, and Al-Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-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.
“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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Al-Ittihad have had the benefit of it.
Add another name to the list: Al-Qadisiyah have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Unai Hernández. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
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-Wehda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Ittihad has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Dec 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Yasser Al-Sheikh was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Al-Ittihad dressing room was either.
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.
Prince Guèye was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A season average of 7.28 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad20 Dec 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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Yasser Al-Sheikh was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Al-Ittihad dressing room was either.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“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.
200 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.
8 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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 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.
“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.
7.60, 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.
“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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Stephane Keller has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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.
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.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 7‑1 against Al-Taawoun, and it could have been more.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
A brace, and Houssem Aouar takes the afternoon — 8.51
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Houssem Aouar provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Al-Ittihad and Al-Taawoun, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Houssem Aouar
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulrahman Al-Obaid will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Ittihad and Al-Faisaly in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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 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.
“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.
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.
Squad15 Nov 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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
Al-Hilal left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Nov 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.
Squad8 Nov 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdulelah Hawsawi and Al-Ittihad agree another 3 years.
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.
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
A season average of 7.14 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.
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: Houssem Aouar. 2‑0 against Al-Shabab, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdulelah Hawsawi and Al-Ittihad agree another 3 years.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roger Fernandes did not need any: 8.34, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Al-Ittihad will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad25 Oct 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.
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. 9 actions, 7.90, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“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 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 3, 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dion Lopy scored, was marked 7.84, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-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.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Diriyah in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
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.
4 goals in 7 games at Najran — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ittihad updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roger Fernandes did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A season average of 7.00 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.
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.
Something was said to Danilo Pereira and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Yasser Al-Sheikh on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Paulo Oliveira's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Younes El Bahraoui provided it, and the 8.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Al-Ittihad and Al-Njoom, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Roger Fernandes, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.04
A mark of 8.04 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.
“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.
3 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ra'ed have kept their man, and Al-Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Roger Fernandes. 1‑0 against Al-Nassr, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
“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.
Real Sociedad pay $18.8M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Al-Ittihad close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 28 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.
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.
Al-Ittihad asked and Al-Qadisiyah 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-Jeel runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Al-Wehda will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Ittihad were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
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.
The offer from Al-Fateh for Farhah Al-Shamrani 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.
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.
Hajer paid $220.0K 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A rule about passports rather than about football has decided he cannot play. Al-Ittihad had more of them than the form allows, and somebody had to be the name that did not fit.
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.
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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hassan Al-Qahtani has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Abdullah Al-Sultan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yasser Al-Shehri 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Porto 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 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.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Athletic Bilbao is saying, and nobody at Al-Ittihad is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Jason 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 phone has started ringing about Farhah Al-Shamrani again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Nahda. Al-Ittihad are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Athletic Bilbao have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Position 2, 63 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.
“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.
Al-Ittihad asked and Al-Ettifaq said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Farhah Al-Shamrani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Ittihad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
17 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Al-Ittihad have gone to Al-Ettifaq 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.
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.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Al-Ittihad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Njoom runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Al-Ittihad will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The offer from Al-Nassr for Mohammed Al-Absi 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.
“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.
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 name of Saad Al-Mosa has come up in conversations Al-Ittihad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jan-Carlo Simić and Al-Ittihad agree another 5 years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Shabab have kept their man, and Al-Ittihad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Add another name to the list: Al-Nassr have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mohammed Al-Absi. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
“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 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 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Al-Shoulla moved on, Farhah Al-Shamrani reports back to Al-Ittihad, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
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.
Squad28 Jun 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad28 Jun 2027
10 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 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.
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.
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.
The fee is $860.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Al-Fayha drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
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.
A club from his own country has asked the question, and he has never pretended he did not want to be asked. Al-Ittihad have a conversation ahead of them that they will not win with money.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Dion Lopy
The dugoutRichard Ríos is still being punished for one mistake
The deal with Al-Fayha 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 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.
Al-Shabab 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Abdulelah Al-Malki is a Al-Ittihad player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Everything agreed with Al-Diriyah, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“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.
$1.2M 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.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Al-Shoulla have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Farhah Al-Shamrani. The answer from Al-Ittihad has not changed — yet.
Squad7 Jun 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Saad Al-Mosa is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
8 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.
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.
“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.
3 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
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.
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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmed Al-Ghamdi, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Richard Ríos's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
9 shut-outs in 25 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until George Ilenikhena signs something — a contract at Al-Ittihad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Ittihad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Full confidence, expressed in the dull, deliberate language boards reserve for when they mean it. The window that follows will show whether the words came with money attached.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ittihad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
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.
“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.
“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 18 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Roger Fernandes signs something — a contract at Al-Ittihad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Ittihad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ittihad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 2, 63 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.
“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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Ittihad told Roger Fernandes something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I watch every Al-Ittihad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hajer runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
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 Hamed Al-Ghamdi is on it.
The manager has not finished forgetting Richard Ríos's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
9 clean sheets from 25 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until George Ilenikhena signs something — a contract at Al-Ittihad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.