Marked for Mohammed Fallatah
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Jul 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Habib Al-Watyan
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Najran lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Mohammed Fallatah is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad16 Jul 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 Najran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jul 2029
At 34 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Transfer targets16 Jul 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.
The dugout16 Jul 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.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to Al Ain: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market16 Jul 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Najran know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
Abdullah Aman gets picked when it counts
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 Abdullah Aman is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jun 2029
110 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Najran lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market18 Jun 2029
Najran say no — this time
The offer from Al-Taawoun for Abdulelah Al-Jaafari was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
The deal with Ohod 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.
Market18 Jun 2029
The shirt still fits. Mohammed Al-Yami is back at Najran, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad18 Jun 2029
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Tempers go at Najran
Pedro Malheiro 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 Jun 2029
Najran asked and Al-Fayha said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
A loan enquiry to Hajduk Split: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market18 Jun 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Najran know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Oct 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
Match21 Oct 2028
No end in sight to Najran's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Najran has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Najran may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Najran
Pedro Malheiro and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match21 Oct 2028
Al-Riyadh left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom23 Oct 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad23 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohammed Fallatah and Najran agree another 4 years.
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Yasser Al-Sheikh to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.