Reflection is an opportunity rarely afforded at the business end of the season.
It must, however, be undertaken by unravelling Saudi Professional League behemoth Al Hilal.
Monday’s ninth – and final – match of a hectic April witnessed in-form Al Taawoun raid King Saud University Stadium and come away with a consequential 2-0 triumph. A, golden, game in hand to usurp Riyadh neighbours Al Nassr at the top of the standings with just two matches left had been blown and a one-point deficit remained.
An unprecedented clean sweep of five trophies had looked not just possible at the end of March, but plausible. Ambitions grow when the last two transfer windows added luxury talents like ex-France centre forward Bafetimbi Gomis, Italy magician Sebastian Giovinco and Australia centre-back Milos Degenek to the resident mix of Saudi Arabia internationals.
A precipitous descent in recent weeks saw Tunisia’s, under-resourced, Etoile du Sahel strike in the 91st minute to emerge victorious in the Zayed Champions Cup decider. Taawoun then produced a historic 5-0 triumph in the King’s Cup semi-finals that hastened the demise of coach Zoran Mamic’s troubled three-month reign, prior to the top-flight shocker 72 hours later against a side led by emergency caretaker Pericles Chamusca – on loan until the end of 2018/19 from Al Faisaly.
It is incumbent on the Hilal hierarchy to use the breathing space prior to next Monday’s key 2019 AFC Champions League group-stage clash with Al Ain and contemplate how, arguably, the grandest squad assembled in Asia have become ramshackle in such a short space of time.
Thrusting the well-travelled Chamusca – Hilal are the 29th posting of a relatively undistinguished 25-year coaching career – into a match of such magnitude is just the latest in a series of bewildering calls.
As expected, Hilal and Nassr were the biggest spenders last summer after then chairman of the General Sports Authority, Turki Al Sheikh, granted bountiful transfer spending across the division.
It was crucial that such largesse was spent wisely. This is where well-connected and urbane club legend Sami Al Jaber proved essential.
Yet, after luring the likes of lauded ex-Benfica and Sporting Lisbon tactician Jorge Jesus, he was gone by September amid a typical SPL power struggle. With him went invaluable contacts and experience gained playing at four World Cups and nearly 500 matches for Hilal.
صور مباراة #التعاون_الهلال .. pic.twitter.com/s3fs6lwVPw
— نادي التعاون السعودي (@AltaawounFC) April 29, 2019
Not that his work was flawless. Whose is?
But Al Jaber’s steadying influence was most pronounced when Jesus’ reluctance to commit beyond the summer caused him to be abruptly jettisoned in late January for Al Ain’s Mamic. What folly.
A six-point lead inherited upon arrival soon evaporated after an initial seamless transition.
Mamic’s more open 4-1-4-1 formation jarred, so too his history at Nassr. The Taawoun humiliations have wrenched apart sizeable wounds that a man like Chamusca will endeavour to heal.
Faisaly rose to sixth from 11th under him, but don’t forget he was sacked by Al Shaab of the UAE’s second division in 2016/17.
These wayward decisions threaten to turn fallow a period that promised abundant success.
