72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Shoulla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nidhal Ben Salem will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Shoulla the goodbyes have quietly begun.
1-4. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Sami Al-Shammari, 15, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 15-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 8 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Waleed Al-Ahmadi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Turki Al-Sheikh has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Two goals and a mark of 9.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Bright Ethaghara 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
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.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Shoulla lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Al-Shoulla 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.
The offer from Al-Jeel for Majed Al-Mutairi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdulrahman Al-Dawsari is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
Al-Shoulla asked and Al-Orobah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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-Shoulla, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Shoulla know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Shoulla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Al-Mojzel for Nidhal Ben Salem was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Shoulla is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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-Shoulla, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Mojzel had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Shoulla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
$180.0K on the table at Al-Ettifaq. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Al-Shoulla asked and Al-Ettifaq said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
Mousa Sufiani 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Shoulla will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bassem Al-Arini is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Al-Shoulla offered $180.0K; Al-Ettifaq said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Orobah have kept their man, and Al-Shoulla go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Raghdan Matri has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Saleh Al-Nashmi 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bright Ethaghara trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Al-Shoulla will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Shoulla people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Ahli keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$180.0K on the table at Al-Ettifaq. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdulaziz Jurmush is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Bright Ethaghara 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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-Shoulla can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Shoulla have done the hard part with Al-Fayha, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nidhal Ben Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Al-Shoulla asked and Al-Jeel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 Nidhal Ben Salem is on it.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Shoulla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Abdullah Abdo 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Shoulla, another week without a signature from Bright Ethaghara.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Bright Ethaghara 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nidhal Ben Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Shoulla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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-Shoulla can pretend not to have heard.
Bernard Ovoke 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.
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.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
“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-Shoulla, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Rashid Toha is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Shoulla will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tebogo Makungo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Shoulla the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Bernard Ovoke 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
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
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.
“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-Shoulla, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sunday Akinbule signs something — a contract at Al-Shoulla or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Shoulla they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Abdullah Abdo 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.
“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-Shoulla know it.
Nobody at Al-Shoulla will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Al-Shoulla has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Position 10 on 27 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.
“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-Shoulla are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Salman Al-Ahmadi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
“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.
“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-Shoulla know it.
Bernard Ovoke 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.
6 goals in one match, Sunday Akinbule on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Shoulla and Al-Jeel.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nidhal Ben Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Al-Shoulla close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Al-Shoulla 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.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nidhal Ben Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Nobody left the Al-Shoulla 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.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Sultan Al-Khaibari to a room that had heard them before.
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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Al-Shoulla have gone to Al-Riyadh 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.
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.
0‑2 to Damac, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Sultan Al-Khaibari to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Al-Shoulla will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Bernard Ovoke 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.
6 goals in one match, Sunday Akinbule on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Shoulla and Al-Riyadh.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nidhal Ben Salem has his answer from Al-Shoulla; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Abdullah Abdo 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Shoulla and Al-Nahda, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Shoulla will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Al-Shoulla scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Bright Ethaghara 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nidhal Ben Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Something was said to Sunday Akinbule and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Shoulla will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nidhal Ben Salem provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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-Shoulla, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Bassem Al-Arini 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Shoulla will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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-Shoulla, and it is not being withdrawn.
Abdullah Abdo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
219% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Shoulla
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.
A point taken on 88 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Shoulla will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Abdullah Abdo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thabo Nkwana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sultan Al-Khaibari after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Abdullah Abdo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Shoulla will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Bright Ethaghara 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fahad Al-Shammari has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Khalid Al-Mutairi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Shoulla can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Al-Shoulla know now that the thought has arrived.
“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-Shoulla can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 24 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
An order from above at Al-Shoulla: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The deal with Al-Ahli 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.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Shoulla and Al-Fayha in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
Beaten 6 times, with 4 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Nassr is saying, and nobody at Al-Shoulla is enjoying the guessing.
Bernard Ovoke 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nidhal Ben Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Al-Shoulla go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Minute 89, against Al-Saudi Al-Watani, 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.
It needed Thabo Nkwana to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Al-Saudi Al-Watani, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The deal with Al-Nassr 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.
Al-Shoulla asked and Al-Ittihad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Abdullah Al-Ahmadi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yasser Al-Mansour is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Talal Al-Sulami has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Saeed Al-Harbi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Al-Shoulla know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
In brief
Squad10 new faces, and Al-Shoulla are still learning each other
Transfer targetsA loan move for Eyad Al-Nasser is in the works
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nidhal Ben Salem and Al-Shoulla agree another 3 years.
Bernard Ovoke 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
Al-Shoulla asked and Al-Diriyah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Al-Shoulla know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Al-Shoulla have made the call to Al-Ittihad. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.