Marked for Valery Polyakin
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jul 2027
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market12 Jul 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Sultan Al-Sawadi 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Saudi Al-Watani have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Al-Saudi Al-Watani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hussain Al-Nattar 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 dugout12 Jul 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rashid Al-Hassan, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
5 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2027
Fahad Al-Obaid damages knee ligaments — 71 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
The terraces24 May 2027
The mood at Al-Saudi Al-Watani has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match24 May 2027
1 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market24 May 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-Saudi Al-Watani can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom24 May 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Saudi Al-Watani
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The dugout24 May 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad24 May 2027
Meshal Sibyani 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Hussain Al-Nattar 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 dugout24 May 2027
Saad Al-Nemer 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
Squad17 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Fahad Al-Obaid
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Saudi Al-Watani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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-Saudi Al-Watani, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market17 May 2027
Rayan Siddiq has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Saudi Al-Watani they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 May 2027
Meshal Sibyani 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Al-Saudi Al-Watani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hussain Al-Nattar 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 dugout17 May 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market17 May 2027
Alamat Dzestelov is 18, and Al-Saudi Al-Watani have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout17 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdullah Al-Shehri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad17 May 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.