Marked for Mohammed Al-Abdullah
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jun 2029
Idrissa Gueye hands in a written request
“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-Diriyah can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
The deal with Al-Riyadh is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Berat Djimsiti 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rashid Al-Salem and Al-Diriyah agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad18 Jun 2029
“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-Diriyah are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad18 Jun 2029
27 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
Adel Hibah gets it from the manager
“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 dugout18 Jun 2029
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
Pressure builds in the Al-Khaleej boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market18 Jun 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Khaleej people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market18 Jun 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Khaleej have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market18 Jun 2029
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Mohammed Al-Abdullah is a Al-Khaleej player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
Al-Khaleej have gone to Al-Batin 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.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
The offer went to Al-Ittihad 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
28 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Abdulrahman Hazazi 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.
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
Wages swallow 94% of the Al-Khaleej 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Jun 2029
“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-Diriyah heard it as anything else.
Squad4 Jun 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Berat Djimsiti and Al-Diriyah agree another 2 years.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
Al-Riyadh will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Abdulaziz Jurmush has pre-agreed a move to Al-Diriyah, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
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-Diriyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jun 2029
“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-Diriyah know it.
Market4 Jun 2029
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Diriyah has been clear about where Mohammed Al-Abdullah stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
“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.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
Al-Diriyah can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Mar 2029
14 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
Squad19 Mar 2029
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-Diriyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Mar 2029
The run at home goes on for Al-Diriyah
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
“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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rawaf Al-Mallah, and the manager let it.
Match17 Mar 2029
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Al-Wehda defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Feb 2029
Idrissa Gueye hands in a written request
“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-Diriyah can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 39 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Al-Diriyah is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Sultan Farhan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
“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.
Match24 Feb 2029
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Looking ahead26 Feb 2029
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Hassan Al-Solan’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Diriyah needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Jan 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Diriyah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market15 Jan 2029
“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 Al-Diriyah, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match13 Jan 2029
4 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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Berat Djimsiti 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.
Match13 Jan 2029
Al-Shoulla made Al-Diriyah work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.95, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad15 Jan 2029
11 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
“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.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Marked 7.77. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Jan 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market1 Jan 2029
Idrissa Gueye hands in a written request
“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-Diriyah can pretend not to have heard.
Match30 Dec 2028
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Al-Orobah spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Anas Al-Ahmadi 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.
Match30 Dec 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hassan Al-Solan. 2‑1 against Al-Orobah, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Hussain Al-Nattar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces1 Jan 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Muath Al-Habib 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 dugout1 Jan 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Dec 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Diriyah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Berat Djimsiti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
The numbers do not look good at Al-Diriyah
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Match23 Dec 2028
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Match23 Dec 2028
A 1‑0 win over Al-Batin, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Mohammed Al-Shalawi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
9 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Nikola Vasilj has given nobody the chance.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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.” Ibrahim Al-Hassan kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Nov 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Diriyah will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad6 Nov 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nasser Al-Sheikh
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Diriyah lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market6 Nov 2028
“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 Al-Diriyah, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad6 Nov 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Berat Djimsiti and Al-Diriyah agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Nov 2028
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-Diriyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Berat Djimsiti, and the manager let it.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match4 Nov 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Muath Al-Habib. 1‑0 against Ohod, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
A mark of 7.84, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Oct 2028
0‑3 against Al-Mojzel, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market9 Oct 2028
“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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
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-Diriyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Oct 2028
After 8 games, Al-Diriyah finally taste it again
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Al-Mojzel; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Al-Diriyah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Al-Shalawi 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.
Boardroom9 Oct 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ibrahim Al-Hassan after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Rawaf Al-Mallah
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces2 Oct 2028
Anger at Al-Diriyah spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market2 Oct 2028
“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 Al-Diriyah, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Al-Diriyah now.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Marked 7.75 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match30 Sep 2028
Whatever happens, Al-Diriyah do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Idrissa Gueye 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 dugout2 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sanele Sikhosana, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Muath Al-Habib is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Al-Diriyah will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Match30 Sep 2028
Late, late show earns Al-Diriyah a point
Minute 89, against Al-Jeel, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Sep 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match23 Sep 2028
Still nobody has beaten Al-Diriyah
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad25 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Al-Diriyah
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Shalawi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Abdulaziz Majrashi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match23 Sep 2028
Al-Diriyah keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Match23 Sep 2028
After 5 games, Al-Diriyah finally taste it again
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Al-Riyadh; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
“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-Diriyah are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces12 Jun 2028
Anger at Al-Diriyah spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
Pressure builds in the Al-Diriyah boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market12 Jun 2028
“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 Al-Diriyah, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market12 Jun 2028
Only the photograph left for Diego Cortés
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Diego Cortés will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Diriyah the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
Al-Diriyah had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Fayha, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad12 Jun 2028
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-Diriyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Al-Diriyah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar 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 dugout12 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Abdulaziz Sharifi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al-Diriyah is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
Al-Diriyah asked and Al-Ta'ee said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 May 2028
“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 Al-Diriyah, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 May 2028
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-Diriyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
Óscar 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 May 2028
This is not rotation. Amadou Bamba has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al-Diriyah is pretending otherwise.
Squad22 May 2028
“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-Diriyah are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout22 May 2028
Óscar 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces15 May 2028
Supporters organise against the Al-Diriyah board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom15 May 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Al-Diriyah
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Diriyah is running low.
Market15 May 2028
“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 Al-Diriyah, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market15 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Diriyah is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 May 2028
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-Diriyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
A row about effort at Al-Diriyah
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Óscar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 May 2028
This is not rotation. Abdulaziz Sharifi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al-Diriyah is pretending otherwise.
Squad15 May 2028
“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-Diriyah know it.
Squad15 May 2028
Óscar wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Al-Diriyah have no good answer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 May 2028
Salem Al-Saleem damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Match1 May 2028
Every point is an argument now for Al-Diriyah
Position 14 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad1 May 2028
A row about effort at Al-Diriyah
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Óscar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 May 2028
This is not rotation. Mohammed Al-Sahihi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al-Diriyah is pretending otherwise.
Squad1 May 2028
Rakan Kaabi 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.
Squad1 May 2028
The captaincy has been taken off Berat Djimsiti. Al-Diriyah will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Boardroom1 May 2028
Nobody arrives at Al-Diriyah until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Al-Diriyah this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
The dugout1 May 2028
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Abdulaziz Majrashi is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugout1 May 2028
Diego Cortés 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Apr 2028
Salem Al-Saleem damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
Market10 Apr 2028
“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-Diriyah can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Berat Djimsiti 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Óscar 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 dugout10 Apr 2028
Nikola Vasilj knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Diriyah, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market10 Apr 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Óscar’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
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 Yasser Al-Dhafiri is on it.
Loan watch10 Apr 2028
29 starts and an average of 6.84. He went there to play and he is playing, which is the only thing a loan was ever for.
Squad10 Apr 2028
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Al-Diriyah says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market13 Mar 2028
“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 Al-Diriyah, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Sami Al-Salem: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Diriyah have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Hussain Al-Nattar arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Hussain Al-Nattar has, at Al-Diriyah, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Óscar 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
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-Diriyah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Diriyah can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market13 Mar 2028
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Rawaf Al-Mallah
“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 dugout13 Mar 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Amar Al-Yuhaybi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.