Marked for Malik Hamza
From our football correspondent
Crisis
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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Al-Nahda and Al-Taawoun have settled on $45.0K. 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 targets28 Jun 2027
No thanks: Ali Makki rejects the move
Al-Nahda had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Shabab, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
This is not rotation. Tebogo Makungo has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al-Nahda is pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Lars Veldwijk 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 targets28 Jun 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Jérémie Kanon 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
10 new faces, and Al-Nahda 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.
Market28 Jun 2027
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Jun 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-Faisaly can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Andrei Girotto 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
Business is business: Malik Hamza goes
Al-Nahda paid $120.0K and Al-Faisaly took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets21 Jun 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“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-Faisaly are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Guidonia Montecelio: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad21 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Al-Faisaly
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Nakhli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yousef Al-Shammari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 Jun 2027
Anger at Al-Nahda spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Al-Nahda
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Nahda is running low.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Al-Nahda had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Najran, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market21 Jun 2027
The chase for Awad Aman ended with $300.0K changing hands and Al-Nassr out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Nahda can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market21 Jun 2027
The paperwork is done: Malik Hamza joins from Al-Faisaly in a deal worth $120.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Al-Nahda
Bright Ethaghara 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Awad Aman 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Al-Nahda is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jun 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market14 Jun 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-Faisaly, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Al-Faisaly
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdoulaye Seck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market14 Jun 2027
Al-Njoom pay $80.0K, 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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Fayha have kept their man, and Al-Faisaly go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jun 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-Faisaly this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market14 Jun 2027
Add another name to the list: Zob Ahan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ibrahima N'Diaye. The answer from Al-Faisaly has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Al-Faisaly have made the call to Ospitaletto. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Al-Ra'ed have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Jun 2027
Al-Nahda are in real trouble now
Position 15, 17 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mirkomil Abdurazzoqov has, at Al-Nahda, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Al-Nassr; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Faisaly is saying, and nobody at Al-Nahda is enjoying the guessing.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“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-Nahda are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Bright Ethaghara 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Al-Nahda
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lars Veldwijk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Fateh have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Rayan Al-Sharekh 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.