Marked for Mansoor Mohammad
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Sep 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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words exchanged at Al-Mojzel
Waleed Al-Hassan 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Al-Mojzel
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talal Al-Shubili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout11 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.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Waleed Al-Hassan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market11 Sep 2028
The name of Salman Al-Ahmadi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Al-Mojzel say nothing, which says plenty.
Market11 Sep 2028
Al-Mojzel opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Talal Al-Subaie stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Al-Mojzel will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Squad11 Sep 2028
The penny has dropped for Luca Ramirez
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Al-Mojzel the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jun 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rabie Hawsawi
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market26 Jun 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.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Talal Al-Subaie has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al-Mojzel is pretending otherwise.
Market26 Jun 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
$240.0K on the table at Al-Fateh. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
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.
Market26 Jun 2028
Al-Nahda paid $11.0K and Al-Mojzel took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Talal Al-Subaie 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
Market19 Jun 2028
$1.1M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Rabie Hawsawi damages knee ligaments — 54 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Mojzel
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match19 Jun 2028
Al-Mojzel are in real trouble now
Position 14, 28 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
The terraces19 Jun 2028
Supporters turn on the $1.1M sale of Sami Al-Ghamdi
He is going to Al-Fateh, the club has $1.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market19 Jun 2028
Damac come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al-Mojzel did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
The deal with Al-Shoulla 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
The chase for Salman Al-Jadany ended with $51.0K changing hands and Al-Njoom out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Nov 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mohamed Khalaf
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces1 Nov 2027
Supporters organise against the Al-Mojzel 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Ibrahim Al-Enezi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match30 Oct 2027
3 matches without a goal for Al-Mojzel
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Reinaldo Dutra, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Hassan Al-Harbi 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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Wages eat 87% of everything Al-Mojzel 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Bandar Al-Enezi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Reinaldo Dutra
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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-Mojzel
Saad Al-Sulami 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
A row about effort at Al-Mojzel
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Ghamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom24 May 2027
Wages eat 91% of everything Al-Mojzel 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.
Market24 May 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market24 May 2027
Ilyan Quattrucci is 18, and Al-Mojzel have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad24 May 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mansoor Mohammad and Al-Mojzel agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout24 May 2027
Reinaldo Dutra 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.