Marked for Amer Khalil
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Apr 2029
Amer Khalil 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Hassan Al-Amri 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.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
“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-Ta'ee, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Fawaz Al-Hamad is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Market23 Apr 2029
Amer Khalil linked with a move away
The name of Amer Khalil keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Al-Ta'ee say nothing, which says plenty.
Market23 Apr 2029
Al-Ta'ee have let the market know Omar El Hanoudi can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout16 Apr 2029
This is not rotation. Jonata Machado has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al-Ta'ee is pretending otherwise.
Squad16 Apr 2029
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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Hassan Al-Amri
“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.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
93% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Ta'ee
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.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“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-Ta'ee, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xidirdavlat Raimqulov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Apr 2029
Amer Khalil 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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.
Market2 Apr 2029
Jonata Machado is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Ta'ee has been clear about where Jonata Machado stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad2 Apr 2029
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 dugout2 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdulrahman Al-Hamyani, and the manager let it.
Market2 Apr 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
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 dugout2 Apr 2029
Hassan Al-Amri knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hassan Al-Amri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Match2 Apr 2029
Continental football is in reach for Al-Ta'ee
46 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Mar 2029
Full time on the season at Al-Ta'ee
Position 5 on 46 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.
Market26 Mar 2029
“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-Ta'ee can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Amer Khalil 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
“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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
The medical room confirms 17 days on the sidelines for Ali Al-Sulami, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Al-Ta'ee pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Match24 Mar 2029
It needed Amer Khalil to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Al-Riyadh, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Salem Al-Dawsari chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad26 Mar 2029
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
Steady
Match17 Mar 2029
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Al-Diriyah, and it could have been more.
Market19 Mar 2029
“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.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
This is not rotation. Jonata Machado has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al-Ta'ee is pretending otherwise.
Squad19 Mar 2029
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Amer Khalil and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Mar 2029
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces19 Mar 2029
He is 23 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.
Boardroom19 Mar 2029
98% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Ta'ee
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.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Salem Al-Dawsari could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Mar 2029
Amer Khalil 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 dugout5 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdulqader Abdullah, and the manager let it.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Marked 7.65 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Al-Ta'ee had the best player on the pitch.
Squad5 Mar 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Adel Hibah
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Adel Hibah has come out of that comparison in the side, and Al-Ta'ee have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match3 Mar 2029
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Mar 2029
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Abdulaziz Majrashi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad5 Mar 2029
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Salem Al-Dawsari after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Feb 2029
“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-Ta'ee, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
This is not rotation. Jonata Machado has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al-Ta'ee is pretending otherwise.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Fahad Al-Hamad 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.
Transfer targets19 Feb 2029
Al-Ta'ee asked and Al-Wehda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Jonata Machado 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.
Match17 Feb 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yasir Al-Sinan, and the manager let it.
Boardroom19 Feb 2029
Wages eat 107% of everything Al-Ta'ee 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Fawaz Al-Hamad is still being punished for one mistake
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Market
The Amer Khalil story refuses to die
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Amer Khalil 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 targets12 Feb 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Diriyah have kept their man, and Al-Ta'ee go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match10 Feb 2029
Al-Ta'ee are at home on the road
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Match10 Feb 2029
It finished 1‑0, and it was Rakan Al-Shamlan’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Ta'ee.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hassan Al-Amri, and the manager let it.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.80 on the card, and the Al-Ta'ee support went home talking about one name.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Salem Al-Dawsari, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad12 Feb 2029
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Xidirdavlat Raimqulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
A promise honoured at Al-Ta'ee
Something was said to Adel Hibah and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Al-Ta'ee until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Amer Khalil 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.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Mojzel have kept their man, and Al-Ta'ee go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Feb 2029
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match3 Feb 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohammed Al-Saiari, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Al-Ta'ee will try again when the window opens; Al-Ra'ed may not be selling by then.
Squad5 Feb 2029
“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-Ta'ee are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Salem Al-Dawsari left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market29 Jan 2029
Amer Khalil hands in a written request
“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-Ta'ee can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Amer Khalil 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Al-Ta'ee asked and Hajer said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad29 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match27 Jan 2029
A 2‑0 win over Al-Fayha, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
“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.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Marked 7.88. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Salem Al-Dawsari kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Al-Ta'ee told Yasir Al-Sinan something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market15 Jan 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market15 Jan 2029
“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-Ta'ee can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
The deal with Damac 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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Amer Khalil 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 targets15 Jan 2029
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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Jonata Machado 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.
The terraces15 Jan 2029
He is 23 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.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Ninety minutes of Salem Al-Toiawy at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al-Ta'ee.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Jan 2029
17 days out for Hassan Al-Amri after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ta'ee will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market8 Jan 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Ta'ee have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
Al-Ta'ee asked and Al-Mojzel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Jonata Machado 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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Hassan Al-Amri 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.
Match6 Jan 2029
Al-Ta'ee caught on 91 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Damac scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Match6 Jan 2029
A 1‑1 draw with Damac leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
“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
Crisis
Squad1 Jan 2029
A fracture rules Hassan Al-Amri out for 24 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ta'ee will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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-Ta'ee, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad1 Jan 2029
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Al-Ta'ee have had the benefit of it.
Squad1 Jan 2029
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match30 Dec 2028
2‑3 to Al-Mojzel, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“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.
Match30 Dec 2028
Al-Ta'ee hit back inside 3 minutes
Al-Mojzel held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Al-Ta'ee answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Dec 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Amer Khalil and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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.
Match23 Dec 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abdulqader Abdullah. 1‑0 against Al-Njoom, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Marked 8.12 — 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.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
Wages swallow 105% of the Al-Ta'ee income
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.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Salem Al-Dawsari could afford to be generous.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Dec 2028
A fracture rules Hassan Al-Amri out for 38 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ta'ee will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market18 Dec 2028
“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-Ta'ee, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Ta'ee may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad18 Dec 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jonata Machado and Al-Ta'ee agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Amer Khalil 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Jonata Machado 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.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Siya Msomi, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
“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.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
Fawaz Al-Hamad is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Dec 2028
A fracture rules Hassan Al-Amri out for 45 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ta'ee will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match9 Dec 2028
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Amer Khalil 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 terraces11 Dec 2028
He is 23 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.
Match9 Dec 2028
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Al-Riyadh tried to reorganise, Al-Ta'ee did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Squad11 Dec 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Siya Msomi and Al-Ta'ee agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Omar El Hanoudi
“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.
Match11 Dec 2028
Halfway: Al-Ta'ee sit in position 5
24 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
In brief
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Player ratings
Salem Al-Toiawy runs at them all day
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The dugout
A promise honoured at Al-Ta'ee
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Nov 2028
A fracture rules Hassan Al-Amri out for 59 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ta'ee will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Ta'ee may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Amer Khalil and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Jonata Machado 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.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
109% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Ta'ee
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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Salem Al-Dawsari to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Abdulrahman Dagriri is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Nov 2028
A fracture rules Hassan Al-Amri out for 73 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ta'ee will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Ta'ee have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad13 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Fahad Al-Hamad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Jonata Machado 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.
Match11 Nov 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hussain Al-Shurafa, and the manager let it.
Squad13 Nov 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Adel Hibah commits to Al-Ta'ee for another 5 years.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Nov 2028
A fracture rules Hassan Al-Amri out for 80 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ta'ee will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
“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.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
A defender's goal wins it for Al-Ta'ee — 7.79
1 for Jonata Machado, marked 7.79, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad6 Nov 2028
70 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Amer Khalil 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Jonata Machado 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.
Match4 Nov 2028
Three points for Al-Ta'ee, 1‑0 the final word against Al-Nahda in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Oct 2028
A fracture rules Hassan Al-Amri out for 87 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ta'ee will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Ta'ee may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Oct 2028
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Amer Khalil and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match28 Oct 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Amer Khalil’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Ta'ee.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout30 Oct 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.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
Wages eat 101% of everything Al-Ta'ee 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.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Marked 7.82 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Al-Ta'ee had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Salem Al-Dawsari, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Oct 2028
94 days out for Hassan Al-Amri after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ta'ee will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“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 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Amer Khalil 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Jonata Machado 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.
Match21 Oct 2028
Al-Orobah left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout23 Oct 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Salem Al-Dawsari to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Oct 2028
Hassan Al-Amri breaks a bone — 108 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Amer Khalil 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Hassan Al-Amri commits to Al-Ta'ee for another 2 years.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“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.
Match7 Oct 2028
A bad afternoon for Al-Ta'ee against Najran
0‑1 to Najran, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Salem Al-Dawsari to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Fawaz Al-Hamad's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Omar El Hanoudi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market9 Oct 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Sep 2028
122 days out for Hassan Al-Amri after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ta'ee will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match23 Sep 2028
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.13, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad25 Sep 2028
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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.02, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Salem Al-Dawsari could afford to be generous.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“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.
Boardroom25 Sep 2028
Al-Ta'ee bank $540.0K from an old deal
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Törles Knöll is somebody else's player now, and $540.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match13 Sep 2028
The small margins put Al-Ta'ee out
Out, 1‑2 to Al-Fateh, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match16 Sep 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Al-Saudi Al-Watani, and it could have been more.
Market18 Sep 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Amer Khalil commits to Al-Ta'ee for another 3 years.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Amer Khalil 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.
Transfer targets18 Sep 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Najran have kept their man, and Al-Ta'ee go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout18 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.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Marked 8.17 — 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.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Ninety minutes of Fahad Al-Hamad at his very best
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al-Ta'ee.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Taawoun have kept their man, and Al-Ta'ee go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Luis Haquín 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
Al-Ta'ee offered $13.0K; Al-Njoom 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Jonata Machado 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.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Amer Khalil 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 dugout11 Sep 2028
Jonata Machado 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al-Ta'ee are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Amjad Haraj has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Al-Ta'ee will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Market11 Sep 2028
Al-Ta'ee spent the window trying to move Jonata Machado on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Al-Ta'ee until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Amer Khalil 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
Najran wanted more than $190.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
Al-Ta'ee asked and Al-Mojzel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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.
Match2 Sep 2028
A bad afternoon for Al-Ta'ee against Damac
0‑1 to Damac, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad4 Sep 2028
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Rakan Al-Shamlan is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Salem Al-Dawsari after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Aug 2028
Al-Mojzel will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Al-Ta'ee were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
Everything agreed with Damac, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
$120.0K on the table at Najran. 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 targets28 Aug 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Yasir Al-Sinan 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 ratings28 Aug 2028
Ninety minutes of Rakan Al-Shamlan at his very best
Marked 8.33. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al-Ta'ee.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yasir Al-Sinan, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Salem Al-Dawsari on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Amer Khalil finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Al-Ta'ee have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Aug 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-Ta'ee can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
The offer went to Al-Njoom this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Al-Ta'ee offered $52.0K; Al-Orobah 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.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
Still nobody in the Al-Ta'ee dugout
11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonata Machado 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Salem Al-Dawsari after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
“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.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
The plan did not have a place for Luis Haquín
Nobody at Al-Ta'ee is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Aug 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
Al-Ta'ee and Al-Riyadh have settled on $140.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Khaleej keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Fahad Al-Hamad 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 targets7 Aug 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 dugout7 Aug 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdulrahman Dagriri, and the manager let it.
Market7 Aug 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
Al-Ta'ee bank $633.3K from an old deal
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Törles Knöll is somebody else's player now, and $633.3K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Jul 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Amer Khalil 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Jonata Machado 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 targets31 Jul 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Ali Al-Jassem
“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 dugout31 Jul 2028
“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-Ta'ee, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
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.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
Amer Khalil has been promised minutes
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 Amer Khalil has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jul 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Khaleej is saying, and nobody at Al-Ta'ee is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Al-Ta'ee go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Jul 2028
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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amer Khalil, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jul 2028
62 days out for Yasir Al-Sinan after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ta'ee will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market3 Jul 2028
Ali Al-Jassem hands in a written request
“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-Ta'ee can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Shoulla have kept their man, and Al-Ta'ee go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Jul 2028
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Ibrahim Al-Nakhli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hassan Al-Amri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Omar El Hanoudi, and the manager let it.
Market3 Jul 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
A loan move for Habib Al-Watyan is in the works
Al-Ta'ee have made the call to Al-Khaleej. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
5 new boys at the Al-Ta'ee academy
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jun 2028
A fracture rules Yasir Al-Sinan out for 83 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ta'ee will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Amer Khalil 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-Ta'ee this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Batin have kept their man, and Al-Ta'ee go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jun 2028
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonata Machado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market12 Jun 2028
Ali Al-Jassem is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Ta'ee has been clear about where Ali Al-Jassem stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
Yasir Al-Sinan 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jun 2028
A fracture rules Yasir Al-Sinan out for 90 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Ta'ee will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Luis Haquín 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 targets5 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.
Market5 Jun 2028
Amer Khalil is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Ta'ee has been clear about where Amer Khalil stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Amer Khalil
“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 dugout5 Jun 2028
Jonata Machado knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jonata Machado trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad5 Jun 2028
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
The window opens at Al-Ta'ee
A month in which every rumour is possible and most of them are nonsense. The manager has a list, the board has a number, and neither is telling the other the whole of it.
Market5 Jun 2028
Al-Ta'ee have let the market know Jonata Machado can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 May 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad29 May 2028
Jonata Machado 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.
Market29 May 2028
Amer Khalil returns a better player
30 games and 8 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad29 May 2028
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Abdulqader Abdullah and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 May 2028
6 new faces, and Al-Ta'ee 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 dugout29 May 2028
Jonata Machado 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 May 2028
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ta'ee lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad15 May 2028
111 days out for Yasir Al-Sinan after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ta'ee will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market15 May 2028
“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-Ta'ee, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 May 2028
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Hassan Al-Amri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 May 2028
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.
Loan watch15 May 2028
30 appearances at Al-Batin and the goals keep coming. Al-Ta'ee are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Apr 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-Batin can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Amer Khalil 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-Batin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Rayan Al-Bloushi 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.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Salem Barayan
“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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
103% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Batin
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.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Abdoulay Diaby has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al-Batin 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.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“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.
Market17 Apr 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Abdoulay Diaby’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market17 Apr 2028
Al-Batin have made Bader Nasser available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Apr 2028
89 days out for Omar El Hanoudi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ta'ee will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Ta'ee may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Luis Haquín and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Jonata Machado 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.
The dugout17 Apr 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.
Loan watch17 Apr 2028
30 appearances away from home and 8 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Mar 2028
117 days out for Omar El Hanoudi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Ta'ee will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match18 Mar 2028
It finished 3‑2, and it was Adel Hibah’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Ta'ee.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Jonata Machado 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Ibrahim Al-Nakhli 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.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nasser Al-Sulami on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Siya Msomi
“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 dugout20 Mar 2028
“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-Ta'ee, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Loan watch20 Mar 2028
29 appearances away from home and 8 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Feb 2028
Al-Batin are in real trouble now
Position 15, 22 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.
Match26 Feb 2028
No end in sight to Al-Batin's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Batin has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Al-Batin
Abdulkarim Al-Qahtani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Rayan Al-Bloushi 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.
Match26 Feb 2028
It needed Rayan Al-Bloushi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Al-Jeel, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Fahad Al-Mansour chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
Simon Falette knocks on the manager's door
“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-Batin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“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.
Looking ahead28 Feb 2028
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Amer Khalil’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Batin needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 145 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match19 Feb 2028
Nowhere to hide for Al-Ta'ee
0‑3 against Al-Hazem, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“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.
Boardroom21 Feb 2028
Nobody left the Al-Ta'ee 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 dugout21 Feb 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nasser Al-Sulami after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Abdulqader Abdullah 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 ratings21 Feb 2028
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Al-Ta'ee, and it is a cruel one.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Jonata Machado 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xidirdavlat Raimqulov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Al-Batin
Youssouf M'Changama and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
$66.0K on the table at Al-Saudi Al-Watani. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Match22 Jan 2028
Amer Khalil scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Al-Ta'ee, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“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.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
124% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Batin
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.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Fahad Al-Mansour to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
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 Abdoulay Diaby is on it.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
Salem Barayan 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.75 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Fahad Al-Hamad 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.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Najran have kept their man, and Al-Ta'ee go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match22 Jan 2028
Al-Batin made Al-Ta'ee work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces24 Jan 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Xidirdavlat Raimqulov 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.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rakan Al-Shamlan, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Al-Ta'ee
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hassan Al-Amri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Jan 2028
3‑0, and Amer Khalil took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Al-Batin tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
A brace, and Amer Khalil takes the afternoon — 8.62
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Amer Khalil provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Batin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Taawoun is saying, and nobody at Al-Batin is enjoying the guessing.
Match15 Jan 2028
The drought breaks for Al-Batin
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Damac were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad17 Jan 2028
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-Batin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Jan 2028
Damac blown away early
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 3 times before the twentieth minute. Damac tried to reorganise, Al-Batin did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Al-Ta'ee 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Hassan Al-Amri 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.
Match15 Jan 2028
Al-Saudi Al-Watani left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout17 Jan 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Nasser Al-Sulami left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad17 Jan 2028
No place for Amjad Haraj in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al-Ta'ee are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad17 Jan 2028
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.
Loan watch17 Jan 2028
The goals keep arriving from Amer Khalil’s exile
7 goals in 20 games at Al-Batin — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Ta'ee updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 Dec 2027
“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-Batin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match18 Dec 2027
The wait goes on for Al-Batin
4 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Khaled Al-Khathlan 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 dugout20 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tebogo Masemola, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Dec 2027
32 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Loan watch20 Dec 2027
“I watch every Al-Batin game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Ta'ee runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.62 on the card, and the Al-Batin support went home talking about one name.
Match18 Dec 2027
Al-Batin and Ohod take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Abdoulay Diaby has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al-Batin 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Dec 2027
Rakan Al-Shamlan damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
5 matches without a win for Al-Ta'ee
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Al-Ta'ee are no longer polite ones.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Hassan Al-Amri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match18 Dec 2027
0‑2 to Al-Jeel, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nasser Al-Sulami after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xidirdavlat Raimqulov 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.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
A promise honoured at Al-Ta'ee
Something was said to Redouane Mennioui and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch20 Dec 2027
16 appearances at Al-Batin and the goals keep coming. Al-Ta'ee are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rakan Al-Shamlan
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ta'ee lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad13 Dec 2027
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match11 Dec 2027
4 matches without a win for Al-Ta'ee
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Al-Ta'ee are no longer polite ones.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Ibrahim Al-Nakhli 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 dugout13 Dec 2027
“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.
Match11 Dec 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hassan Al-Amri 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.
Match13 Dec 2027
The half-term report on Al-Ta'ee
Position 8, 17 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
At 37 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.81, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad29 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Al-Batin
Rayan Al-Bloushi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
123% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Batin
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.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Turki Al-Jalfan
“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.
Match27 Nov 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Al-Saudi Al-Watani leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Looking ahead29 Nov 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Fayha in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
Salem Barayan 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.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Nov 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A fracture rules Ahmed Al-Dosari out for 20 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Batin will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad22 Nov 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-Batin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bader Nasser, and the manager let it.
Match20 Nov 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Amer Khalil. 1‑0 against Al-Mojzel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Loan watch22 Nov 2027
“I did not go to Al-Ta'ee to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Batin and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Fahad Al-Mansour kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Abdoulay Diaby has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al-Batin 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.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Tebogo Masemola 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Nov 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-Batin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Bader Nasser 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.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Amer Khalil’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Batin needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Al-Batin would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Market15 Nov 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Batin know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market15 Nov 2027
Al-Batin have made Tebogo Masemola available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Squad15 Nov 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-Batin the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Nov 2027
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ta'ee lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad1 Nov 2027
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad1 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Ibrahim Al-Nakhli 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
0‑2 to Al-Hazem, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout1 Nov 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Al-Ta'ee training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hassan Al-Amri 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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Wages swallow 95% of the Al-Ta'ee income
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.
The dugout1 Nov 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 Nasser Al-Sulami to a room that had heard them before.
Looking ahead1 Nov 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Abdulaziz Al-Alawi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Ta'ee needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Oct 2027
The wait goes on for Al-Batin
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.
Match25 Oct 2027
Every point is an argument now for Al-Batin
Position 15 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad25 Oct 2027
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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
A brace, and Amer Khalil takes the afternoon — 8.50
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Amer Khalil provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad25 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Al-Batin
Youssouf M'Changama and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces25 Oct 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Amer Khalil 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.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“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.
Match23 Oct 2027
Late, late show earns Al-Batin a point
Minute 89, against Al-Nahda, 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.
Loan watch25 Oct 2027
“I watch every Al-Batin game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Ta'ee runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Oct 2027
No end in sight to Al-Batin's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Batin has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Oct 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-Batin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout18 Oct 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
0‑1 to Al-Hazem, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Oct 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Fahad Al-Mansour to a room that had heard them before.
Squad18 Oct 2027
6 new faces, and Al-Batin 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdulbasit Hawsawi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead18 Oct 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Nahda in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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
Crisis
Match2 Oct 2027
No end in sight to Al-Batin's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Batin has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad4 Oct 2027
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Youssouf M'Changama and Al-Batin agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Abdulkarim Al-Qahtani 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.
Match2 Oct 2027
Tebogo Masemola scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Najran, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Amer Khalil 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.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
Wages swallow 110% of the Al-Batin income
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.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Fahad Al-Mansour left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tebogo Masemola trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match25 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Al-Batin
6 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Al-Batin
Youssouf M'Changama and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout27 Sep 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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.88, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Loan watch27 Sep 2027
“I did not go to Al-Ta'ee to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Batin and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Match25 Sep 2027
A 2‑2 draw with Al-Ta'ee leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Abdoulay Diaby has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al-Batin 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.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Fahad Al-Mansour was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Al-Batin dressing room was either.
Squad27 Sep 2027
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Sep 2027
122 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Ta'ee lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market6 Sep 2027
“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-Ta'ee, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Window shuts: 16 in, 12 out at Al-Ta'ee
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 12 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market6 Sep 2027
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Abdulrahman Al-Hamyani is a Al-Ta'ee player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Hassan Al-Amri 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.
Market6 Sep 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hussain Al-Shurafa has his answer from Al-Ta'ee; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Loan watch6 Sep 2027
“I did not go to Al-Batin to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Ta'ee and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Wages eat 91% of everything Al-Ta'ee 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Aug 2027
Chastening afternoon for Al-Batin
A 1‑4 beating by Hajer was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market23 Aug 2027
“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-Batin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Aug 2027
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.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Batin have done the hard part with Al-Wehda, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad23 Aug 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-Batin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Aug 2027
Al-Batin leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amer Khalil, and the manager let it.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Nobody left the Al-Batin 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
11 new faces, and Al-Batin 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Mazyad Freeh asks for a word with the manager
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Looking ahead
A test against the best for Al-Batin
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Aug 2027
The unthinkable, invoiced: Törles Knöll sold
Al-Ittihad arrived with $3.5M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Jonata Machado damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Market9 Aug 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.
The terraces9 Aug 2027
Törles Knöll has gone, the accounts have $3.5M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Market9 Aug 2027
Hajer pay $460.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market9 Aug 2027
Damac paid $38.0K and Al-Ta'ee took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Abdulaziz Al-Alawi commits to Al-Ta'ee for another 3 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“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-Ta'ee know it.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Ittihad is saying, and nobody at Al-Batin is enjoying the guessing.
Squad19 Jul 2027
The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Amer Khalil, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Youssouf M'Changama 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Al-Batin asked and Najran said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Al-Batin are still strangers to each other
9 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.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohammed Al-Sahli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market19 Jul 2027
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Al-Batin could get for him.
Market19 Jul 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Tebogo Masemola’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market19 Jul 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Lizwe Nxele may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
Jonata Machado damages knee ligaments — 57 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
“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-Ta'ee can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 Jul 2027
Al-Jeel come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al-Ta'ee did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Al-Ta'ee asked and Al-Taawoun said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Al-Ta'ee
Fahad Al-Hamad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
Wages eat 120% of everything Al-Ta'ee 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Jun 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.
Market28 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Al-Batin
Amer Khalil and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Tebogo Masemola 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.
Squad28 Jun 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Al-Batin know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jonata Machado
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Ta'ee lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Al-Ta'ee
Abdulkarim Sultan 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.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Jonata Machado
“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.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
Wages swallow 133% of the Al-Ta'ee income
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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
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.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Fahad Al-Hamad knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fahad Al-Hamad trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.