Marked for Mohammad Essa
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Oct 2028
The wait goes on for Al Shaab
19 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market30 Oct 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.
Market30 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Faisal Hassan
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Faisal Hassan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al Shaab the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Adis Jašić 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 Shaab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Oct 2028
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad30 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Masahito Ono
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Market3 Apr 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 The request is on a desk at Al Shaab, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Khalfan Mabkhout recited it perfectly.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Wesley Hoedt 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“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 Shaab know it.
Squad3 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Al Shaab will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Al Shaab pull $3.0M back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Market3 Apr 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market6 Mar 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 Shaab can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Shaab may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Wesley Hoedt 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Saeed Ismail commits to Al Shaab for another 3 years.
Squad6 Mar 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.
Market6 Mar 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Jul 2027
Al Wasl come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al Shaab did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Jean Pierre Fuentes 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Youssef Ismail 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 Youssef Ismail trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jun 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ismail Al Kamali and Al Shaab agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market14 Jun 2027
The paperwork is done: Mohammad Essa joins from Al Fujairah in a deal worth $140.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Jean Pierre Fuentes 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Jun 2027
Every point is an argument now for Al Fujairah
Position 14 and 6 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
Novak Vuković 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 Fujairah can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Jun 2027
Kweku Estine has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al Fujairah they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Ervin Taha 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 Fujairah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market7 Jun 2027
Al Shabab are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Al Fujairah will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market7 Jun 2027
The name of Mohammad Essa has come up in conversations Al Fujairah were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 May 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 Fujairah, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market17 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al Fujairah is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 May 2027
Ervin Taha 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.