I have seen lots of comments about Saudi here, and sadly most of them have some level of truths in them. There are so many problems in Saudi football I don't even know where I should start! The country HAS talents, everybody knows that, but thats about it! Development of youth? We never heard of that! Our youth are developed in the alleys, where dribbling and football trickery is developed, but not a proper football mentality, physique, stamina...etc.
As Muha said, one of our major problems is that we don't have players playing outside (namely Europe). I never thought that having so much money would be such a problem. Lets take the example of Yasser Al-Qahtani, this player could play in Europe, he is young and he talented, but no one is gonna pay on such an unproven youngster. In summer 2005 the two Saudi clubs Ittihad and Hilal got into a price war, and Yasser's price was driven up to 40 Million Riyals (around $10 Million). No club in Europe will pay that much for an unproven player, or am I mistaken??
The players themselves seem to have high expectations and want them met as soon as they get first team action. The concept of "paying their dues" is totally foreign to them.
Anyways this subject really depresses me, I think the Saudi team is running currently on reputation, we kicked S. Korea's ass home and away last qualifiers, but when you look closer, one must wonder how?
Oh and Muha, trust me the Saudi vs. Bahrain tie is far from a rivalry, don't flatter yourself
