Marked for Abdullah Abdo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match19 Sep 2026
0‑4 against Al-Riyadh, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout21 Sep 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.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Al-Shoulla
12 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Naser Al-Ghamdi
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Sep 2026
A 2‑1 win over Al-Nahda, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match12 Sep 2026
Chastening afternoon for Al-Shoulla
A 0‑5 beating by Al-Diriyah was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Younes Abdulwahed delivers — 7.90
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Younes Abdulwahed scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thabo Nkwana 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sami Al-Rashid is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sami Al-Shammari is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad7 Sep 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
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-Shoulla can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 24 in, 1 out at Al-Shoulla
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Abdullah Abdo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Al-Nahda made Al-Shoulla work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market31 Aug 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-Shoulla can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Thabo Nkwana 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sultan Al-Khaibari after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Naser Al-Ghamdi dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al-Shoulla are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑6 against Al-Fayha, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Rashid Toha 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad17 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Francisco Trincão, whose 5 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match15 Aug 2026
8‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Both of them Ivan Toney's — 9.49
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.49, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Mojzel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Ahli is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market17 Aug 2026
Al Shabab come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al-Ahli did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
200 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Esbjerg have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abdulrahman Ghareeb. The answer from Al-Ahli has not changed — yet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Al-Ahli
Roger Ibañez 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Qadisiyah have kept their man, and Al-Ahli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.