Marked for Majed Abdullah
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.27 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match19 Feb 2028
Al-Hilal made Al-Shabab work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Ninety minutes of Daniel Podence at his very best
Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al-Shabab.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Majed Abdullah and Al-Shabab agree another 4 years.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hamed Al-Ghamdi, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
Loan watch21 Feb 2028
25 appearances at Al-Fayha and the goals have stopped going in. Al-Shabab lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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.
Looking ahead21 Feb 2028
A test against the best for Al-Shabab
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Al-Ahli.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Jan 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.
Market24 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Jan 2028
The name of Hammam Al-Hammami has come up in conversations Al-Shabab were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets24 Jan 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.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
No hiding place for Mory Diaw
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mory Diaw, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Jan 2028
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
A loan enquiry to Dolomiti Bellunesi: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Al-Shabab have made the call to Cosenza. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Match22 Jan 2028
It needed Roger Martínez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Al-Ra'ed, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hammam Al-Hammami, and the manager let it.
Squad18 Oct 2027
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Marked 7.44 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Al-Shabab had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Match16 Oct 2027
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Al-Ra'ed came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Marked 5.09, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Looking ahead18 Oct 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Wehda in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Up for the corner, and Josh Brownhill delivers — 7.93
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Josh Brownhill scored, was marked 7.93, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Match21 Aug 2027
Al-Fateh left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market23 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Shabab have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“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 dugout23 Aug 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Turki Al-Subaie after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
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 Roger Martínez is on it.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Majed Abdullah left off the list on the foreign quota
A rule about passports rather than about football has decided he cannot play. Al-Shabab had more of them than the form allows, and somebody had to be the name that did not fit.
Market23 Aug 2027
Al-Shabab have made Hammam Al-Hammami available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jul 2027
Add another name to the list: Al-Khaleej have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Yannick Carrasco. The answer from Al-Shabab has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Al-Fayha wanted more than $1.7M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The deal with Lecco 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Taawoun have kept their man, and Al-Shabab go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Majed Abdullah and Al-Shabab agree another 4 years.
Squad12 Jul 2027
7 new faces, and Al-Shabab are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
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.
Market12 Jul 2027
Al-Shabab have let the market know Daniel Podence can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Squad12 Jul 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 May 2027
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-Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 May 2027
Mohammed Hurbush comes back from a loan that worked
28 appearances and 2 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
The dugout31 May 2027
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 Awad Al-Nashri is on it.
The dugout31 May 2027
“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-Shabab, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market31 May 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Roger Martínez signs something — a contract at Al-Shabab or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Match31 May 2027
Al-Shabab in the hunt for Europe
Position 4, 56 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
The dugout31 May 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mohammed Al-Yami has written the date down.
Squad31 May 2027
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-Shabab the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Squad31 May 2027
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces26 Apr 2027
Supporters organise against the Al-Wehda 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
101 days out for Rayan Al-Mousa after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Wehda will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match26 Apr 2027
Al-Wehda are in real trouble now
Position 12, 18 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.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
Pressure builds in the Al-Wehda boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad26 Apr 2027
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-Wehda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Dino Halilović pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Al-Wehda
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Augustine Oladapo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Majed Abdullah
“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 dugout26 Apr 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Wehda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match18 Nov 2026
The cup run ends for Al-Wehda
0‑3 against Al-Faisaly, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
A cup embarrassment at Al-Faisaly follows Al-Wehda home
0-3. 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Al-Wehda
Augustine Oladapo 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
At last: Al-Wehda win one
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Najran. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Match21 Nov 2026
Three points for Al-Wehda, 1‑0 the final word against Najran in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 8.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
Nowhere to hide for Al-Wehda
0‑3 against Al-Fateh, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Abdullah Al-Owaishir 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Wehda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Augustine Oladapo 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.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ahmed Al-Shehri after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout28 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.
The dugout28 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 Ahmed Al-Muwallad is on it.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hajer in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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-Wehda can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Al-Wehda close the window on a squad of their own making
17 in and 2 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Wehda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Augustine Oladapo 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Sattam Al-Lehiyani 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Al-Wehda are still strangers to each other
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Majed Abdullah named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Majed Abdullah is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market7 Sep 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Peter Olayinka signs something — a contract at Al-Wehda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Al-Hilal next, and one man in the Al-Wehda dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Salem Al-Maqadi 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.