The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Nahda have done the hard part with Al-Nassr, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The chase for Yousef Al-Shammari ended with $550.0K changing hands and Al-Faisaly out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The offer went to Al-Ra'ed 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.
“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-Nahda are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Zakaria Ami 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. Hajer have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Nahda people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Al-Nahda have gone to Al-Taawoun 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.
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-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chase for Raghdan Matri ended with $25.0K changing hands and Al-Shoulla out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Taawoun have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Al-Nahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rashid Al-Salem is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
Everything was agreed with Al-Taawoun and then the doctor spoke. Al-Nahda have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Al-Nahda have gone to Hajer 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 offer went to Al-Ra'ed 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.
Ibrahim Al-Shuail 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 fee is $50.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Najran drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Al-Nahda and Al-Taawoun have settled on $670.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Nahda have done the hard part with Najran, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Ibrahim Al-Shuail 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.
$5.0K on the table at Al-Ittihad. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Al-Nahda 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.
Add another name to the list: Al-Njoom have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Emad Fidaa. The answer from Al-Nahda has not changed — yet.
In brief
Boardroom122% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Nahda
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ra'ed have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Al-Fayha have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Thamer Al-Dhafeeri. The answer from Al-Nahda has not changed — yet.
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-Nahda know 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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Zakaria Ami 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aboubakkar Moussa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
Ali Al-Eid 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Nahda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Nahda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aboubakkar Moussa signs something — a contract at Al-Nahda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Lars Veldwijk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Al-Nahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rashid Al-Salem is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Ibrahim Al-Shuail is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugout8 May 2028
Yassin Hamzah is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Al-Nahda would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Nahda 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 Bandar Nasser was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Ibrahim Al-Shuail was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ibrahim Al-Shuail trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Al-Nahda has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Sizwe Mhlangu 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rashid Al-Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thamer Al-Dhafeeri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Nahda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Lars Veldwijk 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Al-Nahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rashid Al-Salem 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
6 new faces, and Al-Nahda 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-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aboubakkar Moussa, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Al-Nahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bandar Nasser 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.
“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-Nahda are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Al-Baraa Adawi has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Al-Nahda.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Yassin Hamzah'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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdulrahman Al-Sherif trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Nahda can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
0‑3 to Al-Mojzel, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Position 13 on 26 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.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Nahda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Lars Veldwijk 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Al-Nahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rashid Al-Salem is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Rashid Al-Salem’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Nahda needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Nahda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The mood at Al-Nahda has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Nahda lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thamer Al-Dhafeeri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Nahda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Lars Veldwijk 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Zakaria Ami 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 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 dugout13 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Mohammed Al-Enezi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Nahda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
Sizwe Mhlangu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Al-Nahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Farhah Al-Shamrani 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mohammed Al-Enezi after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Nahda lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1‑4 to Al-Hazem, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
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.
Lars Veldwijk 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 bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Nahda they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Lars Veldwijk 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-Nahda 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aboubakkar Moussa provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Nahda people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Nahda and Al-Batin in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Al-Nahda 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Al-Nahda will try again when the window opens; Al-Orobah may not be selling by then.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mohammed Al-Enezi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Al-Nahda and Al-Orobah have settled on $380.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Abdulaziz Al-Shammari did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ahmet Under is living that version at Al-Nahda, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajer have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Lars Veldwijk 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-Riyadh have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.81, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Al-Nahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rashid Al-Salem 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ali Al-Abdullatif has his answer from Al-Nahda; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
1‑4 to Al-Riyadh, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Nahda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Nahda have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Lars Veldwijk 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Nahda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Fayha waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Nahda is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Hilal is saying, and nobody at Al-Nahda is enjoying the guessing.
Khaled Al-Rammah 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-Nahda asked and Al-Ittihad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
A brace, and Lars Veldwijk takes the afternoon — 8.95
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lars Veldwijk provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Nahda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Nahda have done the hard part with Al-Hilal, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Khaled Al-Rammah has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mohammed Al-Enezi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 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-Nahda will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The dugout3 Jan 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 Mohammed Al-Enezi to a room that had heard them before.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Nahda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Farhah Al-Shamrani 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
Boardroom124% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Nahda
Position 15 and 13 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Nahda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Lars Veldwijk 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Lars Veldwijk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Al-Nahda is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Half the programme played, position 13, 13 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Mohammed Al-Enezi could afford to be generous.
In brief
SquadLyu Kaiwen falls out with a teammate over standards
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Yassin Hamzah's mistake
The dugoutMalik Hamza has become a man the manager trusts
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Nahda can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Nahda will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Khaled Al-Rammah 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Khaled Al-Rammah's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Nahda will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aboubakkar Moussa provided it, and the 8.97 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
12 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Al-Shoulla were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Salman Abubakar and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
12 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.
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-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
Lars Veldwijk 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 dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Mohammed Al-Enezi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Nahda 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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Lars Veldwijk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Nahda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Yassin Hamzah'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.
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-Nahda would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Nahda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Rayan Al-Sharekh may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
11 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
0‑3 to Al-Hazem, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Nahda will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mohammed Al-Enezi after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugoutSizwe Mhlangu knocks on the manager’s door
66Edition
The Al-Nahda Courier
1 Nov 2027
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces1 Nov 2027
The mood at Al-Nahda has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
10 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.
“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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Lars Veldwijk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Al-Nahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rashid Al-Salem is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every 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.
9 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.
Lars Veldwijk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
0‑3 to Damac, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Lars Veldwijk 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 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-Nahda are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rayan Al-Sharekh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
Salman Abubakar 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.
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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Sizwe Mhlangu is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Minute 89, against Al-Njoom, 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.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
A brace, and Lars Veldwijk takes the afternoon — 8.60
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lars Veldwijk provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Lars Veldwijk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
7 goals in one match, Lars Veldwijk on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Nahda and Al-Riyadh.
“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-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
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.
The terraces20 Sep 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
1-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Lars Veldwijk 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 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.
“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-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Al-Nahda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nurmuhammad Abdug'aniyev 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mohammed Al-Enezi after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 21 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Nahda have done the hard part with Al-Taawoun, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Muhayya Al-Sulami reports back to Al-Nahda with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Al-Nahda asked and Al-Faisaly said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
Al-Nahda had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Nassr, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Lars Veldwijk 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-Riyadh have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Nahda 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-Nahda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Al-Nahda had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Qadisiyah, 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-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Hazem have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off 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-Nahda are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The mood at Al-Nahda has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
Al-Nahda and Al-Nassr have settled on $380.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Nahda have done the hard part with Al-Hazem, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Everything agreed with Al-Ittihad, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rashid Al-Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Lars Veldwijk 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-Nahda asked and Al-Hilal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Al-Nahda have made the call to Al-Ittihad. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Sizwe Mhlangu's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Al-Nahda had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Qadisiyah, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$400.0K on the table at Al-Nassr. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Lars Veldwijk 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-Faisaly have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Nahda 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 Rashid Al-Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Faisaly is saying, and nobody at Al-Nahda is enjoying the guessing.
Al-Nahda have gone to Al-Nassr with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
11 new faces, and Al-Nahda 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Al-Nahda will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Al-Nahda have made the call to Al-Faisaly. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Al-Nahda had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Qadisiyah, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The offer went to Al-Faisaly 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.
Lars Veldwijk 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.
$29.0K 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 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.
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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Al-Ittihad have accepted the money. What Al-Nahda do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$29.0K 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lyu Kaiwen has just signed for Al-Nahda, and for once the answer mattered.
Al-Nahda offered $30.0K; Al-Khaleej 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.
“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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $33.4K — a club that wants Abdulmajeed Al-Khathami enough to be asked twice.
“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-Nahda know it.
The chase for Ali Hajjas ended with $120.0K changing hands and Najran out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The fee is $110.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Al-Faisaly drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The offer went to Al-Ittihad 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.
$30.0K on the table at Al-Khaleej. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mohammed Al-Enezi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nura Dan Megi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Nahda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Lars Veldwijk 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-Nahda asked and Al-Ta'ee said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Lars Veldwijk 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Ammar Al-Hudaybi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Al-Nahda have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The terraces24 May 2027
The mood at Al-Nahda has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rayan Al-Sharekh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Al-Nahda could ask drops and the wages Nura Dan Megi can ask rise.
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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rayan Al-Sharekh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Nahda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Salman Abubakar signs something — a contract at Al-Nahda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mohammed Al-Enezi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Lars Veldwijk 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yaseen Al-Jaber trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Faris Al-Zubaidi is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
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.
The mood at Al-Nahda has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Al-Nahda could ask drops and the wages Nura Dan Megi can ask rise.
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-Nahda 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lars Veldwijk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Nahda they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Nahda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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-Nahda are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Lars Veldwijk 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 dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Faris Al-Zubaidi'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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Nahda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mohammed Al-Enezi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 24 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Lars Veldwijk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Aboubakkar Moussa is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Moustapha Sémbène's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Al-Nahda will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“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-Nahda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Damac next, and one man in the Al-Nahda dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lars Veldwijk signs something — a contract at Al-Nahda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Nura Dan Megi’s negotiating for him
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Marked 8.31 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
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.
“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-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Nahda they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Nura Dan Megi has agreed terms with Al-Ettifaq for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Lars Veldwijk 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 point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Nahda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.27, 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Nahda can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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 7.44 for the rest of it.
“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-Nahda know it.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Nahda lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Salman Abubakar'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.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Nahda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lars Veldwijk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Nahda 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.
Lars Veldwijk 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 spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Salem Al-Sultan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sami Al-Sheikh is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Sizwe Mhlangu
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Al-Nahda scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“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-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Al-Nahda know it.
Lars Veldwijk 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-Wehda have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 6.89 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Position 14 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Two goals and a mark of 9.07 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Al-Nahda 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.
13 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Al-Nahda asked and Al-Diriyah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 13 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
0‑4 against Al-Ettifaq, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Nahda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Damac 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.
Lars Veldwijk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Hilal have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off 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-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Al-Diriyah 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.
Lars Veldwijk 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-Wehda have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
Position 14 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The deal with Al-Ahli 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
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-Nahda 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.
He is 21 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.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Nahda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Lars Veldwijk 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Chances created: 9. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Omar Abdullah’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Nahda needing him to play as if none of it matters.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rayan Al-Sharekh provided it, and the 7.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Al-Nahda and Damac, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Nawaf Al-Osaimi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Nahda, another week without a signature from Nura Dan Megi.
Position 15 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
“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-Nahda know it.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Al-Nahda and Al-Njoom, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“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-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“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.
“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-Nahda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
0‑6 to Al-Diriyah, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
Lars Veldwijk 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Nahda and Al-Diriyah in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 4 saves does not settle it either way.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mohammed Al-Enezi after 0‑6, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Lars Veldwijk 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Wadhah Malik'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 at Al-Nahda will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Nahda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Position 14 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Nahda and Al-Ta'ee in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑5 Mohammed Al-Enezi left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Adel Al-Mutairi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑3 to Al-Fayha, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Nawaf Al-Osaimi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Nahda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Ayel Haqawi'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.
Lars Veldwijk 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 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
21 new faces, and Al-Nahda 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Nahda can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lars Veldwijk signs something — a contract at Al-Nahda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
1‑4 to Al-Mojzel, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Lars Veldwijk 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 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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Nobody at Al-Nahda will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Al-Nahda will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
0‑5 to Al-Ettifaq, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Lars Veldwijk 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad21 Sep 2026
21 new faces, and Al-Nahda 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑5 Mohammed Al-Enezi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Al-Shoulla go through and Al-Nahda go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
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. 10 actions, 6.81, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“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-Nahda, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Al-Nahda close the window on a squad of their own making
32 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Ittihad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Yassin Hamzah is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“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-Nahda can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Taawoun is saying, and nobody at Al-Nahda is enjoying the guessing.
Lars Veldwijk 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Wadhah Malik has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Salman Abubakar. 1‑0 against Ohod, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.04 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
A loan enquiry to Al-Fayha: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Mohammed Al-Enezi, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $30.0K — a club that wants Ali Al-Mahdawi enough to be asked twice.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Nahda have done the hard part with Al-Taawoun, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Lars Veldwijk 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.
$29.0K was the most the club would pay and Al-Hilal 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Nahda, another week without a signature from Nura Dan Megi.
In brief
Squad18 new faces, and Al-Nahda are still learning each other
A brace, and Lars Veldwijk takes the afternoon — 8.56
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lars Veldwijk provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $8.9K — a club that wants Danyal Al-Habeeb enough to be asked twice.
Al-Nahda 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Muhayya Al-Sulami has his answer from Al-Nahda; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Emad Fidaa has just signed for Al-Nahda, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Ettifaq is saying, and nobody at Al-Nahda is enjoying the guessing.
Lars Veldwijk 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.
$7.0K on the table at Al-Fayha. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Al-Nahda asked and Al-Riyadh said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Omar Al-Dawsari is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ali Al-Subaie has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Talal Al-Ghamdi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Waleed Al-Sulami 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.