78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ohod lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at Ohod, and it is not being withdrawn.
Awadh Khamis 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Meshack Maphangule 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ohod, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutBader Fallatah is still being punished for one mistake
0‑9 to Al-Riyadh, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Everything agreed with Al-Diriyah, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ohod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Ohod and Al-Riyadh, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Awadh Khamis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Wehda have kept their man, and Ohod go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Meshack Maphangule 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.
Position 12, 11 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.
7.64, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Ohod had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Turki Al-Sulami was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Ohod dressing room was either.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ohod, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Ohod will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ohod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Al-Ettifaq arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Bader Fallatah'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.
Al-Ettifaq next, and one man in the Ohod dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Turki Al-Sulami after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Bader Fallatah'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.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Ohod was different afterwards.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ohod have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He is 22 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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Meshack Maphangule was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Turki Al-Sulami to a room that had heard them before.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Ohod will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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 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.
1‑5 against Al-Diriyah, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
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.
Al-Ettifaq ended it 0‑6. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
A cup hiding at Al-Ettifaq leaves Ohod explaining themselves
0-6, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
6 goals in one match, Yasser Zahli on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Ohod and Al-Diriyah.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Ohod and Al-Ettifaq, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Meshack Maphangule 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.
“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 Ohod, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 34 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Ohod 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.
Mohammed Abdulrahman 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.
20 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
11 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abdullah Al-Qahtani provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Nassr is saying, and nobody at Ohod is enjoying the guessing.
Marked 7.90. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Ohod asked and Al-Qadisiyah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Meshack Maphangule was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sergio Sardinha has just signed for Ohod, and for once the answer mattered.
Awadh Khamis 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.
“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 dugout17 Aug 2026
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 Turki Al-Sulami left the room before anybody could ask which.