Marked for Abdullah Al-Rashidi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ittihad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market2 Nov 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Moussa Diaby 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 terraces2 Nov 2026
The crowd has taken to Sorin Ziane
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match31 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Moussa Diaby’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Ittihad.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.40 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Too much change too quickly at Al-Ittihad
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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 Oct 2026
Moussa Diaby 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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo Pereira 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
2‑3 to Al-Hilal, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Fabinho 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Al-Ittihad settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Al-Hilal spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Moussa Diaby 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Sorin Ziane is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Moussa Diaby 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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 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-Ittihad are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match10 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Moussa Diaby’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Ittihad.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Sep 2026
The small margins put Al-Ittihad out
Out, 0‑1 to Al-Diriyah, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Al-Ittihad's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Ittihad has to find a result from somewhere.
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-Ittihad heard it as anything else.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Moussa Diaby 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-Ittihad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Ittihad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo Pereira 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mario Mitaj and Al-Ittihad agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Al-Ahli, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.