Al-Ahli are growing increasingly anxious over the uncertainty hanging over Dutch coach Marino Pusic. The club have yet to decide his fate, whether that means tearing up his contract or backing him to stay.
The delay comes around 10 days before the eagerly awaited clash with Al-Nassr, set for 20 November as part of the Roshn Saudi Pro League programme.
According to the Saudi newspaper "Asharq Al-Awsat", the looming fixture leaves Al-Ahli's management facing a crucial technical call. Questions are mounting over how the prolonged limbo is affecting the team's preparations, especially since any change in the dugout would hand a replacement coach only a short window to assess his players and impose his ideas before one of the club's biggest games of the coming period.
The timing is telling. Just two days earlier, informed sources told "Asharq Al-Awsat" that Italians Thiago Motta and Antonio Conte had entered the running to succeed Pusic, with Motta heading the list of options on the table. Conte, by contrast, demanded a huge salary to take the job. German coach Ole Werner's name has also done the rounds as a possible candidate.
So which way will the board turn? The lingering doubt over Pusic's future throws up the question of whether they keep him and offer a further chance to steady the ship, or push ahead with a change that would require wrapping up negotiations with a candidate before cutting ties with the current coach.
What makes it all so delicate is the run of recent results, which have angered the fans and reignited the debate over Pusic's tactical choices and his ability to get the best out of the players at his disposal for a club that wants to fight for trophies.
Al-Ahli sit sixth in the Saudi Pro League with 21 points from 11 matches. They occupy sixth in the AFC Champions League Elite too, with 8 points from 4 games, and both tables ramp up the pressure on coach and board alike over the weeks ahead.
Change the coach before the Al-Nassr game and the clock becomes the enemy. A new staff would have precious little time to get the team ready, settle on a line-up and prepare for a direct rival in the league.
Sticking with Pusic, on the other hand, demands a clear stance from the board, one that gives the coach and the players the stability to focus on what lies ahead rather than the noise of a possible switch.
Pusic arrived at Al-Ahli last August on a deal running until June 2028. The recent results have dragged his future back into question, and now the fans wait on the board's verdict over the dugout.
The next few days look decisive. Al-Ahli must choose between keeping Pusic and bringing in a new man, and the timing cuts both ways: delay the call beyond the Al-Nassr fixture and the current uncertainty rolls on, make it before kick-off and the incoming staff face an early and brutal examination.
The biggest challenge for the board is to settle the matter in time for the team to prepare for what's coming, with supporters craving a return to winning ways and a genuine fight on both the domestic and continental fronts.