Marked for Marwane Saâdane
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 May 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad24 May 2027
Words exchanged at Al-Fateh
Mourad Batna 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Al-Fateh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marwane Saâdane 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.
The dugout24 May 2027
Ziyad Al-Jari asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market24 May 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mihai Lixandru signs something — a contract at Al-Fateh or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad24 May 2027
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Al-Fateh and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 May 2027
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.
Market17 May 2027
Zaydou Youssouf wants to know where this is going
“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-Fateh hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad17 May 2027
Marwane Saâdane 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 May 2027
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Fateh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 May 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Fateh can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Al-Fateh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marwane Saâdane 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Habib Al-Watyan 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 dugout3 May 2027
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 Hussain Qassem is on it.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Mehdi Al-Aboud'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.
Market3 May 2027
The name of Zaydou Youssouf keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Al-Fateh say nothing, which says plenty.
Loan watch3 May 2027
28 starts and a season average of 6.77. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager makes Ziyad Al-Jari a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Fateh. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Al-Fateh
Fahad Al-Zubaidi 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Al-Fateh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marwane Saâdane 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Apr 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fahad Al-Zubaidi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Fateh the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Fateh may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Al-Fateh
Mourad Batna and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Marwane Saâdane 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.
Market12 Apr 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Fateh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Saad Al-Sharfa asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Mohamed Refat gets picked when it counts
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 Mohamed Refat is on it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Fateh. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad12 Apr 2027
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Mar 2027
Mehdi Al-Aboud has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Fateh they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Marwane Saâdane 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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Jan Petek
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market22 Mar 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Fateh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Al-Fateh that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Faisal Darisi knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Faisal Darisi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Mar 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Fateh they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Fateh can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Al-Fateh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marwane Saâdane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yaseen Al-Zubaidi, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Habib Al-Watyan 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 dugout15 Mar 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Fateh told Abdulaziz Al-Faraj something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market15 Mar 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Fateh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Mohamed Refat gets picked when it counts
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 Mohamed Refat is on it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Al-Fateh has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Mar 2027
Full time on the season at Al-Fateh
Position 9 on 32 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match27 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Al-Fateh's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Fateh has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“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-Fateh are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Mourad Batna 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 dugout1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kennedy Boateng, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Al-Fateh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marwane Saâdane 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
A point taken on 90 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.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
“I did not go to Najran to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Fateh and fight for my place.” 22 appearances in 29 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Feb 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Fateh people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market8 Feb 2027
The deal that would have taken Othman Al-Othman to Al-Khaleej has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Al-Fateh with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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-Fateh heard it as anything else.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zaydou Youssouf and Al-Fateh agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Al-Fateh 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
Al-Taawoun left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Al-Fateh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marwane Saâdane 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.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“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 dugout8 Feb 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Jan 2027
Najran will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Fateh were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 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 Al-Fateh 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
Lukáš Haraslín wants to know where this is going
“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-Fateh hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Fateh can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Marwane Saâdane 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
Al-Khaleej are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Al-Fateh will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The team sheet said everything about Ziyad Al-Jari
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 Ziyad Al-Jari.
In brief
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
Player ratings
A defender's afternoon for Saeed Baattia
-
Squad
Saeed Baattia has to sit this one out
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fahad Al-Zubaidi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Fateh the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom18 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Diriyah have kept their man, and Al-Fateh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Al-Nassr left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Al-Fateh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marwane Saâdane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad18 Jan 2027
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Mehdi Al-Aboud 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Dec 2026
27 days out for Majed Qasheesh after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Fateh will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Mourad Batna, 36, rolls back the years — 8.23
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Zaydou Youssouf 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Hajer made Al-Fateh work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Fateh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marwane Saâdane 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 ratings28 Dec 2026
Marked 8.06 — 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
110% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Fateh
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.
The dugout28 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.” Abdullah Al-Juhani kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Robin Kelder, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Dec 2026
Al-Shabab will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Fateh were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Majed Qasheesh out for 35 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Fateh will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.74, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market21 Dec 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Fateh they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market21 Dec 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market21 Dec 2026
“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-Fateh heard it as anything else.
Match19 Dec 2026
Al-Fateh settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Al-Shabab spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Fateh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marwane Saâdane 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 ratings21 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Majed Qasheesh out for 49 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Fateh will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Adrian Šemper
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match5 Dec 2026
Al-Hilal left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Fateh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marwane Saâdane 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Robin Kelder named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Robin Kelder is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Looking ahead7 Dec 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Hussain Qassem’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Fateh needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The plan did not have a place for Ziyad Al-Jari
Nobody at Al-Fateh is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Jan Petek knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jan Petek trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“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-Fateh know it.
Match28 Nov 2026
1‑2 to Al-Ittihad, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Fateh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marwane Saâdane 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ziyad Al-Jari, and the manager let it.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 110% of the Al-Fateh income
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.
Match30 Nov 2026
The half-term report on Al-Fateh
Position 10, 16 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Looking ahead30 Nov 2026
The leaders are next for Al-Fateh
Al-Hilal top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Majed Qasheesh out for 64 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Fateh will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market23 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Fateh they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Fateh may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Al-Fateh
Mourad Batna and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Nov 2026
Al-Ra'ed made Al-Fateh work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad23 Nov 2026
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout23 Nov 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.” Abdullah Al-Juhani kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Mourad Batna in a row with a teammate
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-Fateh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Al-Fateh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marwane Saâdane was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Jan Petek
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mohamed Refat'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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Al-Ra'ed next, and one man in the Al-Fateh dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market16 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Wilfried Kanga signs something — a contract at Al-Fateh or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sattam Al-Tumbukti trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Najran, and it could have been more.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Majed Qasheesh out for 96 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Fateh will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Oct 2026
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.
Market26 Oct 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Fateh they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Lukáš Haraslín was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.56. 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Marwane Saâdane 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.12, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 16, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
Majed Qasheesh breaks a bone — 104 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tadjou Alidou is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Adrian Šemper
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Fateh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marwane Saâdane 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
4.73 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
Nowhere to hide for Al-Fateh
0‑3 against Al-Nassr, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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-Fateh are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Al-Fateh
Mourad Batna 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 138% of everything Al-Fateh earn
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Fateh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marwane Saâdane 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Al-Fateh dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Al-Fateh are still strangers to each other
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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 0‑3 Abdullah Al-Juhani left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Sep 2026
The small margins put Al-Fateh out
Out, 1‑2 to Al-Ta'ee, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match12 Sep 2026
Hajer will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Fateh were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.19, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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-Fateh heard it as anything else.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohamed Refat 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Marwane Saâdane 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.19 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match9 Sep 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Mohamed Refat had Al-Fateh level again within 1 minutes, and Al-Ta'ee never got to play with a lead at all.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Hilal is saying, and nobody at Al-Fateh is enjoying the guessing.
Market7 Sep 2026
The phone has started ringing about Zaydou Youssouf again, and this time the name on the line is Union SG. Al-Fateh are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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-Fateh can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 14 in, 2 out at Al-Fateh
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$190.0K was the most the club would pay and Al-Taawoun 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Marwane Saâdane 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sattam Al-Tumbukti and Al-Fateh agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Al-Fateh 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Robin Kelder
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Robin Kelder has come out of that comparison in the side, and Al-Fateh have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Al-Fateh have gone to Al-Hilal 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market24 Aug 2026
Najran come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al-Fateh did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $108.1K — a club that wants Sami Al-Naji enough to be asked twice.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Jan Petek gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jan Petek has just signed for Al-Fateh, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$100.0K was the most the club would pay and Al-Nassr 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Al-Fateh 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Zaydou Youssouf’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Fateh.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Marwane Saâdane 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
Nowhere to hide for Al-Fateh
1‑5 against Al-Hilal, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market17 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Fateh people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market17 Aug 2026
Al-Khaleej come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al-Fateh did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $284.4K — a club that wants Jan Petek enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
No thanks: Khalid Juma rejects the move
Al-Fateh had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al Ahli, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$270.0K on the table at Al-Riyadh. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mourad Batna 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to Al-Nassr 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.