“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-Taawoun can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marin Petkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Mubarak Al-Buainain has moved up it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Taawoun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Petkov 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.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Marin Petkov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Al-Ittihad.
“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Taawoun, and it is not being withdrawn.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-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Bahusayn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Marin Petkov 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.
Meshal Sibyani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cristhoper Zambrano trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Abdullah Al-Salem is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Al-Ettifaq next, and one man in the Al-Taawoun dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Taawoun have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Taawoun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Taawoun has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 27 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Al-Taawoun until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
5 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.
The offer went to Hajer this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Aschraf El Mahdioui and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marin Petkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Abderrazak Hamdallah and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Al-Taawoun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The phone has started ringing about Sultan Harun again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Shoulla. Al-Taawoun are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Ettifaq keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$370.0K on the table at Hajer. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marin Petkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
3 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.
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-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Taawoun, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al-Taawoun hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$32.0K was the most the club would pay and Al-Shabab were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Petkov 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-Taawoun asked and Hajer said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$1.2M was the most the club would pay and Al-Khaleej were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Bahusayn 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.
Anas Al-Ahmadi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Nelson Ralenkoane has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Al-Taawoun $733.3K. Younes El Bahraoui left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
Nobody at Al-Taawoun will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Taawoun people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer went to Al-Khaleej this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Aschraf El Mahdioui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Marin Petkov 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.
Al-Taawoun have made the call to Reggiana. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The deal with Damac is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Al-Taawoun asked and Al-Khaleej said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Abderrazak Hamdallah was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Al-Taawoun offered $390.0K; Hajer said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulrahman Hindi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al-Taawoun are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Nobody at Al-Taawoun 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 was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Taawoun have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Taawoun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
$390.0K on the table at Hajer. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Bahusayn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abderrazak Hamdallah and Al-Taawoun agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajer have kept their man, and Al-Taawoun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Marin Petkov 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.
“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-Taawoun are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Mohammed Al-Khabrani arrives at 35 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Taawoun have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Al-Khaleej have accepted the money. What Al-Taawoun do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Al-Taawoun had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Nassr, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Taawoun can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
5 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.
“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-Taawoun can pretend not to have heard.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ibrahim Al-Zahrani had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Abderrazak Hamdallah was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Al-Taawoun asked and Stade Lavallois said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Abdullah Al-Salem commits to Al-Taawoun for another 2 years.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Bahusayn 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-Taawoun have made the call to Al-Riyadh. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Jeel had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Ettifaq keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Bahusayn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Al-Taawoun have made the call to Stade Lavallois. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Al-Taawoun will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The offer from Al-Nassr for Mohammed Al-Absi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Ettifaq is saying, and nobody at Al-Taawoun is enjoying the guessing.
Aschraf El Mahdioui and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Al-Taawoun asked and Hajer said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Taawoun has been clear about where Abdulrahman Hindi stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad11 Jun 2029
8 new faces, and Al-Taawoun are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The offer from Al-Ettifaq for Fahad Al-Rashidi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Taawoun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nelson Ralenkoane has just signed for Al-Taawoun, and for once the answer mattered.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Taawoun have done the hard part with Al-Ettifaq, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mohammed Al-Kuwaykibi 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.
Abderrazak Hamdallah and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Saad Al-Mansour has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rashid Al-Khaibari is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hamad Al-Dosari is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mohammed Al-Hassan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mohammed Al-Kuwaykibi is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Taawoun. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Al-Taawoun the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Al-Taawoun have had the benefit of it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marzouq Tambakti and Al-Taawoun agree another 3 years.
Mohammed Al-Dossary and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
13 clean sheets from 30 appearances at Al-Ta'ee. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Nobody at Al-Taawoun 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ahmed Bahusayn trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Ali Hazazi’s negotiating for him
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Taawoun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marzouq Tambakti and Al-Taawoun agree another 3 years.
Fahad Al-Rashidi 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Cristhoper Zambrano has written the date down.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Al-Taawoun have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“I watch every Al-Taawoun game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Diriyah runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Abdullah Al-Salem is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Fahad Al-Rashidi has written the date down.
37 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
“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-Taawoun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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-Taawoun 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Al-Taawoun could ask drops and the wages Mohammed Al-Kuwaykibi can ask rise.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Fahad Al-Rashidi plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
30 appearances at Al-Ta'ee and the goals have stopped going in. Al-Taawoun lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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.
7 goals in 28 games at Ohod — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Taawoun updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Taawoun. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Al-Taawoun could ask drops and the wages Ali Hazazi can ask rise.
“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-Taawoun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fahad Al-Rashidi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Taawoun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Abderrazak Hamdallah and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nasser Al-Dawsari is 16, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ali Hazazi is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Taawoun. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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-Taawoun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Omar Al-Khaibari has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Omar Al-Dawsari has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mohammed Al-Salem has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Abdullah Al-Salem is on 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-Taawoun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Al-Fateh will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Abdullah Al-Mogren has pre-agreed a move to Al-Taawoun, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Fahad Al-Rashidi has his answer from Al-Taawoun; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fahad Al-Rashidi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Al-Taawoun have gone and got theirs early.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Ohod suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Al-Taawoun, and the summer will force it.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Al-Taawoun than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Fahad Al-Rashidi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
30 appearances at Al-Ta'ee and the goals have stopped going in. Al-Taawoun lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Fahad Al-Rashidi is on it.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Al-Taawoun that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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. Fahad Al-Rashidi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Taawoun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Abderrazak Hamdallah and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
12 shut-outs in 29 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Mohammed Al-Absi has been having a lot of them.
Nobody at Al-Taawoun 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.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Taawoun lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nobody at Al-Taawoun 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Cristhoper Zambrano has written the date down.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Al-Taawoun will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Abdulrahman Al-Senaidi 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.
Aschraf El Mahdioui 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.
11 shut-outs in 27 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Mohammed Al-Absi has been having a lot of them.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nasser Al-Dawsari and Al-Taawoun agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Marin Petkov is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 37 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“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-Taawoun are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Abderrazak Hamdallah 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nasser Al-Harbi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Al-Taawoun 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
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Al-Taawoun man
Al-Khaleej will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Taawoun were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.52 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Taawoun heard it as anything else.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Taawoun and Al-Khaleej in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Qadisiyah have kept their man, and Al-Taawoun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fahad Al-Rashidi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Al-Taawoun asked and Al-Shabab said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Ahmed Bahusayn.
9 clean sheets from 24 appearances at Al-Ta'ee. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Nasser Al-Harbi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Batin had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Maílson reports back to Al-Taawoun with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Al-Taawoun until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Ettifaq is saying, and nobody at Al-Taawoun is enjoying the guessing.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Riyadh is saying, and nobody at Al-Taawoun is enjoying the guessing.
Abderrazak Hamdallah 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.
3 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.
Al-Taawoun asked and Al-Ahli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
0‑2 to Al-Ahli, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Nasser Al-Harbi to a room that had heard them before.
Add another name to the list: Al-Qadisiyah have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fahad Al-Rashidi. The answer from Al-Taawoun has not changed — yet.
Al-Taawoun have gone to Hajer with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Al-Ittihad will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Adnan Al-Bishri has pre-agreed a move to Al-Taawoun, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Faris Al-Ghamdi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Aschraf El Mahdioui and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
$80.0K was the most the club would pay and Hajer were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ettifaq have kept their man, and Al-Taawoun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Al-Taawoun have made the call to Al-Ahli. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Al-Qadisiyah the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Al-Taawoun will enjoy reviewing.
The offer from Al-Wehda for Maílson 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abderrazak Hamdallah provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Taawoun heard it as anything 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-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Al-Taawoun asked and Al-Ettifaq said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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-Taawoun, and it is not being withdrawn.
Abderrazak Hamdallah 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.
Marked 8.14 — 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.
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.
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.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Marin Petkov
“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-Taawoun know it.
Mohammed Al-Dossary was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.19, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Nobody at Al-Taawoun 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Taawoun told Fahad Al-Rashidi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
16 appearances at Al-Ta'ee and the goals have stopped going in. Al-Taawoun lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sami Al-Dawsari and Al-Taawoun agree another 3 years.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abderrazak Hamdallah and Al-Taawoun agree another 2 years.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.78 beside his name.
Faris Al-Ghamdi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Taawoun, and 7 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Nasser Al-Harbi chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 6, 18 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cristhoper Zambrano trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Al-Taawoun will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mohammed Al-Kuwaykibi is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Ettifaq in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Al-Taawoun will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Faris Al-Ghamdi provided it, and the 8.44 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Nasser Al-Harbi, on a 5‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Marin Petkov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Taawoun, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Nasser Al-Harbi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
10 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Abdullah Al-Salem is on it.
Fahad Al-Rashidi 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Nasser Al-Harbi could afford to be generous.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Taawoun told Faris Al-Ghamdi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Al-Taawoun have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Hazem in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
Player ratingsMarin Petkov beats them one at a time
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Taawoun can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nasser Al-Harbi after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The new man at Al-Taawoun has worked with Sultan Farhan before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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.
Marat Tymoshchuk 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 new man at Al-Taawoun has worked with Sultan Farhan before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Al-Ahli next, and one man in the Al-Taawoun dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Al-Taawoun that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Al-Taawoun will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“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-Taawoun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Taawoun lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The new man at Al-Taawoun has worked with Sultan Farhan before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cristhoper Zambrano trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Taawoun lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Abderrazak Hamdallah and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abderrazak Hamdallah. 1‑0 against Al-Ra'ed, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al-Taawoun, and 4 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
The new man at Al-Taawoun has worked with Sultan Farhan before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Taawoun lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Taawoun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 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.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Nasser Al-Harbi to a room that had heard them before.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
The new man at Al-Taawoun has worked with Sultan Farhan before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Abdullah Al-Salem obliged against Al-Nahda. 4‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Al-Taawoun.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.30 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Al-Shabab; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Saeed Al-Juhani 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Fahad Al-Rashidi reports back to Al-Taawoun with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Maher Tawashi has, at Al-Taawoun, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Faris Al-Ghamdi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Al-Taawoun will try again when the window opens; Hajer may not be selling by then.
The new man at Al-Taawoun has worked with Sultan Farhan before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Taawoun has been clear about where Fahad Al-Rashidi stands, which is more than many ever get.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Taawoun lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Taawoun, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Al-Taawoun close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 13 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Taawoun have done the hard part with Hajer, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Al-Taawoun have gone to Al-Ettifaq with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Taawoun lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Fahad Al-Rashidi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
$88.0K was the most the club would pay and Hajer were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Al-Taawoun had all but put away. Al-Faisaly will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
The new man at Al-Taawoun has worked with Sultan Farhan before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Al-Hilal will want this one forgotten quickly: 8‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Taawoun were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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-Taawoun know it.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Al-Taawoun and Al-Hilal, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
8.36. 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.
“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-Taawoun, and it is not being withdrawn.
Abderrazak Hamdallah and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nawaf Al-Otaibi has, at Al-Taawoun, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Al-Taawoun
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.
Al-Taawoun asked and Al-Orobah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bandar Al-Juhani has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Talal Al-Sheikh has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nasser Al-Dawsari is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Al-Taawoun asked and Al-Orobah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fahad Al-Rashidi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The new man at Al-Taawoun has worked with Sultan Farhan before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Sultan Farhan has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Taawoun, another week without a signature from Mohammed Al-Kuwaykibi.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Al-Taawoun $733.3K. Younes El Bahraoui left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Hayder Abdulkareem has moved up it.
“I will play as long as the body lets me and stop the day it does not.” He is 33, with 311 appearances behind him, and the club has to plan for a decision that is not yet made.
Sultan Farhan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The new man at Al-Taawoun has worked with Sultan Farhan before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The offer from Al-Shoulla for Abdulrahman Hindi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The offer went to Hajer this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Sultan Farhan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Add another name to the list: Al-Mojzel have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mohammed Al-Absi. The answer from Al-Taawoun has not changed — yet.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al-Qadisiyah will make the call about Moustapha Sémbène this week. Al-Taawoun have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Dossary was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The new man at Al-Taawoun has worked with Sultan Farhan before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Tigre keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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-Taawoun have made the call to Al-Diriyah. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohammed Al-Essa and Al-Taawoun agree another 4 years.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Taawoun people have started saying his name 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.
A new face in his position, and Aschraf El Mahdioui suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Al-Taawoun have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
The offer from Al-Nahda for Abdulrahman Hindi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Add another name to the list: Internacional have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Maílson. The answer from Al-Taawoun has not changed — yet.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Qadisiyah is saying, and nobody at Al-Taawoun is enjoying the guessing.
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-Taawoun 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.
Al-Taawoun have made the call to Al-Nassr. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Taawoun, and it is not being withdrawn.
$1.8M on the table at Al-Shabab. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Al-Dossary is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A loan enquiry to Al-Qadisiyah: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad26 Jun 2028
5 new faces, and Al-Taawoun are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Abdullah Al-Salem is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Ohod had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The deal that would have taken Abdulrahman Hindi to Al-Nahda has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Al-Taawoun with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The clubs have shaken hands with Al-Qadisiyah; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Al-Taawoun will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Shabab have kept their man, and Al-Taawoun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Taawoun can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The offer from MC Alger for Maílson was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The offer went to Al-Shabab this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al-Nahda will make the call about Abdulrahman Hindi this week. Al-Taawoun have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sami Al-Dawsari and Al-Taawoun agree another 3 years.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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-Taawoun, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Bahusayn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Al-Qadisiyah have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Abdulrahman Hindi has moved up it.
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.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aschraf El Mahdioui 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Taawoun will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Al-Taawoun have had the benefit of it.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ali Al-Sakakir has agreed terms with Ohod for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Taawoun will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Abderrazak Hamdallah was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Dossary was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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-Taawoun know it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abderrazak Hamdallah and Al-Taawoun agree another 2 years.
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-Taawoun 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Al-Taawoun has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“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-Taawoun can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Dossary was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Al-Taawoun has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Position 3, 48 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Youssef Al-Nahdi 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Parfait Guiagon wants continental football; whether Al-Taawoun can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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-Taawoun know it.
Nobody at Al-Taawoun will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Taawoun know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mohammed Al-Kuwaykibi has written the date down.
“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-Taawoun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Parfait Guiagon plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aschraf El Mahdioui 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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Abderrazak Hamdallah has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
In brief
BoardroomThe Al-Taawoun production line keeps running
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Taawoun heard it as anything else.
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 will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
A decision that decides nothing on the pitch and everything in the room. The manager has said, without saying it, whose voice he wants heard when his own is not there.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammed Al-Absi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Abderrazak Hamdallah and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
Abderrazak Hamdallah 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aschraf El Mahdioui 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.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
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.
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Al-Dossary 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 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Al-Taawoun will try not to make too much of it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mohammed Al-Kuwaykibi has written the date down.
Position 3 on 48 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Ricardo Mathias scored in the 88th minute, Al-Ittihad had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Al-Taawoun took the lot.
Two goals and a mark of 8.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 3, 48 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ricardo Mathias. 2‑1 against Al-Ittihad, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
7.73, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Taawoun has been clear about where Fahad Al-Rashidi stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Nasser Al-Harbi kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Al-Ra'ed moved on, Fahad Al-Rashidi reports back to Al-Taawoun, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“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-Taawoun know it.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
0‑3 to Al-Khaleej, 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Taawoun people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Al-Taawoun close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aschraf El Mahdioui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Al-Taawoun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Al-Taawoun ran out of time with Al-Faisaly. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ricardo Mathias did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
7.57, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Taawoun have done the hard part with Al-Faisaly, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Abderrazak Hamdallah and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Dossary was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chase for Khalid Al-Ghannam ended with $4.9M changing hands and Al-Ettifaq out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Al-Taawoun have gone to Al-Qadisiyah with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Fahad Al-Rashidi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Al-Taawoun and Al-Ettifaq have settled on $4.9M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Al-Taawoun offered $37.0K; Al-Qadisiyah said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ahli have kept their man, and Al-Taawoun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A point taken on 91 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Saleh Abu Al-Shamat provided it, and the 8.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Al-Taawoun have gone to Al-Qadisiyah with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The phone has started ringing about Ahmed Bahusayn again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Faisaly. Al-Taawoun are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aschraf El Mahdioui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Parfait Guiagon was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
7.82, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Qadisiyah have kept their man, and Al-Taawoun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Taawoun may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aschraf El Mahdioui is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Nasser Al-Harbi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“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-Taawoun, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Al-Ettifaq next, and one man in the Al-Taawoun dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Position 4, 31 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ahmed Bahusayn will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Taawoun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al-Taawoun hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Taawoun 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Nobody at Al-Taawoun 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 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-Taawoun are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Abderrazak Hamdallah and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Al-Taawoun had all but put away. Al-Faisaly will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nawaf Al-Huwiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aschraf El Mahdioui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Al-Taawoun who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Zineddine Belaïd's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Al-Taawoun and Al-Ittihad, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Al-Taawoun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aschraf El Mahdioui is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Maílson knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Al-Taawoun, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Taawoun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Zineddine Belaïd and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nasser Al-Harbi was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Al-Taawoun dressing room was either.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Saleh Abu Al-Shamat is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nawaf Al-Huwiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Taawoun have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aschraf El Mahdioui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Ricardo Mathias has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aschraf El Mahdioui signs something — a contract at Al-Taawoun or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cristhoper Zambrano trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Ra'ed in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Al-Taawoun has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ricardo Mathias did not need any: 9.96, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aschraf El Mahdioui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Taawoun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.