93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Khaled Al-Sumairi had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Al-Jeel were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings21 Jan 2030
Saad Al-Mutairi, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.57
A mark of 8.57 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.33 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1‑6 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Al-Njoom and Al-Riyadh, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Njoom can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.37 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Ali Kachmar 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 month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Brent Liivak is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The terraces31 Dec 2029
The mood at Al-Njoom 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.68 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ali Kachmar 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 hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rashid Al-Nemer did not need any: 7.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Ali Kachmar 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.
At 20 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.
“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-Njoom know it.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Njoom is running low.
The terraces3 Dec 2029
The mood at Al-Njoom 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Njoom can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
At 33 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.
6 goals in one match, Prince Ibara on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Njoom and Al-Ta'ee.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.39 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Ali Kachmar 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.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
A brace, and Prince Ibara takes the afternoon — 8.63
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Prince Ibara provided it, and the 8.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
6 goals in one match, Prince Ibara on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Njoom and Al-Diriyah.
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom 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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Ali Kachmar 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-Njoom are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Prince Ibara signs something — a contract at Al-Njoom or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Prince Ibara could not do
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Njoom can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The terraces5 Nov 2029
The mood at Al-Njoom 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.
Position 15 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.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Prince Ibara had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Al-Faisaly were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
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.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Ali Kachmar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
Player ratingsSardorbek Erkinov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Fikri Arjidan at his very best
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.44 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
23 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
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.
Ali Kachmar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Al-Njoom know it.
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ziyad Al-Refaei will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Ali Kachmar 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.
At 34 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Al-Njoom dressing room in a hurry
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salman Ələsqərov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Njoom can tell you which week it ends in.
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Al-Njoom 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Al-Faisaly go through and Al-Njoom 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.
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.
The terraces17 Sep 2029
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 36 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Njoom have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom 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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ziyad Al-Refaei will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Ali Kachmar 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.
At 34 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Al-Njoom $313.3K. Ukeme Williams left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salman Ələsqərov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
24 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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-Njoom know it.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Waleed Al-Nemer did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Ali Kachmar 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 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Montassar Toumi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
8 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.
Saad Al-Mutairi scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Al-Wehda, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom 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.
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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Ali Kachmar 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.
At 34 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salman Ələsqərov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Montassar Toumi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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.
In brief
SquadAli Kachmar has improved at 27, which nobody expected
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ziyad Al-Refaei will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ashkan Gholizadeh is living that version at Al-Njoom, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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-Njoom are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Njoom can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Ahmad Ghoddos is 20, and Al-Njoom have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Al-Riyadh for Sardorbek Erkinov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ali Kamali was one of the reasons people came, and $710.0K does not replace that by itself.
Al-Taawoun paid $710.0K and Al-Njoom took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadYefim Hordon falls out with a teammate over standards
Squad5 new faces, and Al-Njoom are still learning each other
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Ali Kachmar 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.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Njoom can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
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.
The offer from Al-Ra'ed for Ali Kamali was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Wigi Pratama has just signed for Al-Njoom, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Ali Kamali
BoardroomThe Al-Njoom production line keeps running
148Edition
The Al-Njoom Post
28 May 2029
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Squad28 May 2029
Prince Ibara damages knee ligaments — 120 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Salem Al-Shehri has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al-Njoom are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad28 May 2029
Yefim Hordon 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.
Prince Ibara damages knee ligaments — 127 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 127 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Montassar Toumi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Prince Ibara damages knee ligaments — 134 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 134 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Al-Njoom 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.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Ali Kamali’s negotiating for him
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Njoom can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salman Ələsqərov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ali Kachmar 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.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yefim Hordon 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.
Squad7 May 2029
Prince Ibara loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Prince Ibara's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Njoom know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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.
Or Hasin 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 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Montassar Toumi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Montassar Toumi has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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-Njoom know 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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Yefim Hordon 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Khaled Al-Sumairi signs something — a contract at Al-Njoom or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Njoom, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Ali Kachmar 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-Njoom, another week without a signature from Ali Kamali.
“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-Njoom know it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Rashid Al-Mutairi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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 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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ali Kachmar 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.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vsevolod Pershin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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-Njoom are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Khaled Al-Sumairi signs something — a contract at Al-Njoom or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Njoom, another week without a signature from Ali Kamali.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Rashid Al-Mutairi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.33 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ali Kamali has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Amir Hajsafi is living that version at Al-Njoom, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salman Ələsqərov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Ali Kachmar 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.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.48 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom 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. Arya Delavari 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.
Tadjou Alidou, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 9.20
A mark of 9.20 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ziyad Al-Refaei will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Tadjou Alidou has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Al-Faisaly tried to reorganise, Al-Njoom did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Rashid Al-Mutairi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Two goals and a mark of 9.08 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.61 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salman Ələsqərov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Ali Kachmar 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.85 — 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Al-Jeel spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 109% of everything Al-Njoom earn
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.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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-Njoom know 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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Rashid Al-Mutairi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Waleed Al-Salem will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Waleed Al-Salem has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Yan 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. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom 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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Arya Delavari commits to Al-Njoom for another 4 years.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Ali Kachmar 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.
18 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Nicolas Riveros was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.49. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Njoom, another week without a signature from Ali Kamali.
Nobody at Al-Njoom 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Yan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The young player of the month award goes to a 17-year-old at Al-Njoom who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
8 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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.
Or Hasin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Prince Ibara was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.52. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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 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-Njoom know it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Yan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Al-Njoom know it.
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Saad Al-Mutairi scored in the 86th minute, Al-Nahda had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Al-Njoom took the lot.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Saad Al-Mutairi. 2‑1 against Al-Nahda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Ali Kachmar 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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-Njoom 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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Al-Faisaly tried to reorganise, Al-Njoom did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Francisco Valenzuela knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 9.09 — 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.
Ali Kachmar 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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.
At 23 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.
38 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Ali Kachmar 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 shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Francisco Valenzuela: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Saad Al-Mutairi obliged against Al-Faisaly. 1‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Al-Njoom.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Squad18 Sep 2028
7 new faces, and Al-Njoom 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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.54 — 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.
“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-Njoom know 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Ali Kachmar 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.
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
He is going to Al-Taawoun, the club has $1.9M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yan provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Njoom and Al-Ta'ee, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The offer from Al-Ra'ed for Arya Delavari was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Al-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Al-Njoom
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Saeed Al-Dossari is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Ali Kachmar has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Ali Kachmar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Muhammad Ilham will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 32 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Al-Saudi Al-Watani will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Abdulaziz Sharifi has pre-agreed a move to Al-Njoom, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Muhammad Ilham 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.
Yan 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Yan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Waleed Al-Salem is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Al-Ettifaq will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Sunday Ahile has pre-agreed a move to Al-Njoom, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Rashid Al-Mutairi 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-Njoom, 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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vsevolod Pershin is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ali Kachmar commits to Al-Njoom for another 4 years.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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 phone has started ringing about Igor Woś again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Mojzel. Al-Njoom are listening politely and promising nothing.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Yan 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Fernández 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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Njoom told Sardorbek Erkinov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
He is going to Al-Ettifaq, the club has $390.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
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.
Ali Kachmar 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Njoom can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Ukeme Williams's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Montassar Toumi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Nahuel Gambino
Yan 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.
Nobody at Al-Njoom will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Njoom, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Al-Njoom will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.07, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Yan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Fernández 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.
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 Arya Delavari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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-Njoom would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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.
Yan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Mehdi Al-Aboud 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.
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.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad17 Apr 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Prince Ibara for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Al-Njoom will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Yan 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.
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.
“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-Njoom are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Njoom, 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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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-Njoom are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
“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-Njoom are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Yan 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Fernández 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.
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nahuel Gambino will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.07, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Yan 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.
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 Arya Delavari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Mehdi Al-Aboud 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.
“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-Njoom know it.
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.
“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-Njoom 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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 8.94 — 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Njoom, another week without a signature from Ali Kachmar.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A mark of 8.36 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A season average of 7.07 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Al-Njoom know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khaled Al-Sumairi 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohammed Al-Nemer. 1‑0 against Al-Nahda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.