9.62. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 7.10, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Hajjas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 8.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Damac will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Sanousi Al-Hawsawi 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.
Marked 8.16 — 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.
9.47. 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.
Sanousi Al-Hawsawi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Jonathan Okita was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
Jonathan Okita and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Yakou Meïté was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.18. 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.
Nobody at Damac will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hassan Rabea, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Talal Al-Sultan was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Damac dressing room was either.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Morlaye Sylla signs something — a contract at Damac or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A 2‑0 win over Al-Diriyah, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
A brace, and Yahya Naji takes the afternoon — 8.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yahya Naji provided it, and the 8.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The goal that put Najran ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Damac equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
7.87, 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.
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.
Jonathan Okita 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 match ball belongs to Hazzaa Al-Ghamdi, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Damac 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.
Jonathan Okita 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.
9.50. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 9.36 — 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jonathan Okita provided it, and the 9.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Damac can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Damac they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Marked 8.58 — 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 phone has started ringing about Hassan Rabea again, and this time the name on the line is Najran. Damac are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jamal Harkass is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Damac, and 2 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Sanousi Al-Hawsawi 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ibrahim Al-Dawsari 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. Abdullah Al-Sheikh is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Mojzel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Damac is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Damac, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kewin wants continental football; whether Damac can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Jonathan Okita and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody at Damac 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.
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.
The offer from Najran for Hassan Rabea 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Damac have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Jamal Harkass falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It 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.
Position 6, 63 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Damac can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Hassan Rabea again, and this time the name on the line is Najran. Damac are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Jamal Harkass has improved at 31, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Damac, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Damac. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Damac know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Damac will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Damac have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Al-Diriyah for Noor 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.
Jonathan Okita was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Damac, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Damac 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. Damac know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Damac, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Damac will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Damac lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Damac can pretend not to have heard.
Jonathan Okita and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody at Damac 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noor Al-Rashidi 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Damac know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Damac will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Damac lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Damac, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 14 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Damac will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Mohammad Alsalkhadi has gone, the accounts have $2.8M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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 Damac, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bandar Al-Nemer 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.
Nobody at Damac will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Damac will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Damac, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Jamal Harkass was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Nobody at Damac will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Damac will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Jonathan Okita 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yannick Caupers has just signed for Damac, and for once the answer mattered.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Damac are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Khaled Al-Sumairi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Damac can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Damac can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Nobody at Damac will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Damac will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Damac 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hassan Rabea trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Damac know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Damac will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jonathan Okita was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jonathan Okita is on it.
The dugout24 May 2027
David Kaiki is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Damac know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutJamal Harkass asks for a word with the manager
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Damac will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Sanousi Al-Hawsawi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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 Morlaye Sylla is on it.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Damac will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Damac, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Jamal Harkass has written the date down.
63 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.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Damac would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I watch every Damac game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hajer runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Kewin is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Damac. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Jonathan Okita plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Damac lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Damac will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jamal Harkass was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting David Kaiki'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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Damac 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 Jamal Harkass has written the date down.
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Damac would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Damac will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Jonathan Okita was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Nobody at Damac will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Damac, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Damac. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Damac lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Damac will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ali Al-Sultan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bandar 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.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yakou Meïté signs something — a contract at Damac or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Damac lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Damac will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Damac can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I watch every Damac game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hajer runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Kewin is on it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Thamer Al-Shahrani has his answer from Damac; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Damac lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Damac will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Sanousi Al-Hawsawi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nobody 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.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Damac lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 137 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Sanousi Al-Hawsawi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Damac will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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 Morlaye Sylla is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammad Alsalkhadi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Hazzaa Al-Ghamdi has written the date down.
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Damac lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yakou Meïté signs something — a contract at Damac or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Damac would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
Position 6, 63 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ibrahim Al-Zahrani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Hajer watched Morlaye Sylla again at the weekend, and this time they did not bother hiding it. Clubs only stop hiding when they want the price to start moving.
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Damac lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 6 on 63 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Marked 8.17 — 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 board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
“I watch every Damac game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hajer runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutKewin has become a man the manager trusts
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Damac lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Damac can pretend not to have heard.
Jonathan Okita 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Saud Al-Ruwaili has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Damac have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Yakou Meïté was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
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.
89 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Damac lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Jonathan Okita was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jamal Harkass, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Talal Al-Sultan left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Morlaye Sylla is on it.
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.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Damac lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Damac lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Al-Njoom will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Emad Fidaa has pre-agreed a move to Damac, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bandar Al-Dawsari 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.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Damac lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Damac 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kewin wants continental football; whether Damac can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Sanousi Al-Hawsawi 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Fayha waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Damac is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Damac can pretend not to have heard.
Sanousi Al-Hawsawi 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 had been thinking. Jamal Harkass is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Talal Al-Sultan after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Damac people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Al-Khaleej for Hassan Rabea 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Hassan Rabea has agreed terms with Al-Ahli for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
Player ratingsHazzaa Al-Ghamdi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Yakou Meïté scored in the 88th minute, Ohod had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Damac took the lot.
The offer from Al-Ettifaq for Noor 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.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
1 for Tariq Abdullah, marked 7.54, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Jonathan Okita and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Damac and Al-Orobah in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Add another name to the list: Al-Ettifaq have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Noor Al-Rashidi. The answer from Damac has not changed — yet.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Jonathan Okita was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jamal Harkass was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Noor Al-Rashidi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Damac the goodbyes have quietly begun.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Match19 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Damac. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Al-Ta'ee made Damac work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Jamal Harkass falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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.” Talal Al-Sultan kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 Kewin is on it.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Ta'ee in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.19 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Sanousi Al-Hawsawi 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 had been thinking. Jamal Harkass is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 15 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Jamal Harkass was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Morlaye Sylla is on 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Noor Al-Rashidi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Damac the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Yakou Meïté was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Damac and Al-Nahda, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Two goals and a mark of 9.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Tariq Abdullah scored, was marked 7.75, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohammad Alsalkhadi. 2‑0 against Al-Hazem, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jamal Harkass is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jamal Harkass
Jonathan Okita and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Saad Al-Enezi 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sultan 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 Jonathan Okita is on it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.” Talal Al-Sultan chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
SquadNoor Al-Rashidi falls out with a teammate over standards
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
6 goals in one match, Mohammad Alsalkhadi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Damac and Al-Saudi Al-Watani.
Sanousi Al-Hawsawi 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Damac is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
7 goals in one match, Mohammad Alsalkhadi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Damac and Al-Mojzel.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. David Kaiki has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.65 — 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.36, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Jamal Harkass 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Jonathan Okita was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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.
Jamal Harkass 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Faisal Al-Shammari has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rashid Al-Dosari 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.
“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.
Nobody at Damac 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Jonathan Okita was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jamal Harkass 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 brace, and Yakou Meïté takes the afternoon — 9.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yakou Meïté provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Damac is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kewin wants continental football; whether Damac can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Damac 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.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
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 Morlaye Sylla is on it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ohod in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Hajer had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Damac did not stop to explain themselves.
Sanousi Al-Hawsawi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Thamer Al-Shahrani has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hassan Al-Dosari has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Salem 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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Al-Fateh moved on, Khaled Al-Sumairi reports back to Damac, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Sanousi Al-Hawsawi 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 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Salman Al-Jadany 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohammad Alsalkhadi provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Damac, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Damac is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Damac asked and Al-Riyadh said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Damac will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Damac are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Damac asked and Al-Ittihad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
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.
Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 16 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Damac people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Jonathan Okita 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Damac and Al-Diriyah in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Damac asked and Al-Mojzel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Damac dressing room in a hurry
The offer from Smouha for Yakou Meïté was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Damac this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Noor Al-Rashidi has come up in conversations Damac were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Faisal Al-Shehri has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Diriyah in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Kewin has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Add another name to the list: Smouha have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Yakou Meïté. The answer from Damac has not changed — yet.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Damac can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Jonathan Okita 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Morlaye Sylla’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.