Marked for Oussama Ounahi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Jan 2029
The wait goes on for Al Shaab
10 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
15 days out for Oussama Ounahi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al Shaab will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad22 Jan 2029
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.
Market22 Jan 2029
Only the photograph left for Gastón Costas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gastón Costas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al Shaab the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al Ahli keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market22 Jan 2029
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Al Shaab can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
Everything agreed with Sharjah, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Boardroom22 Jan 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Gastón Costas has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad22 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Al Shaab
Rashid Juma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Jan 2029
Every point is an argument now for Al Shaab
Position 13 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.
Match13 Jan 2029
The wait goes on for Al Shaab
9 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.
Market15 Jan 2029
“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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
A fracture rules Oussama Ounahi out for 22 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Shaab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market15 Jan 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Felgueiras keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Al Shaab
Rashid Juma 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.
Boardroom15 Jan 2029
Still no name above the door at Al Shaab
Day 14 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad15 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Al Shaab
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rashid Mabkhout was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Market8 Jan 2029
“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.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
A stranger takes charge at Al Shaab
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
Match6 Jan 2029
No end in sight to Al Shaab's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al Shaab has to find a result from somewhere.
Market8 Jan 2029
Al Ahli 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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad8 Jan 2029
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
The deal with Felgueiras 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Jan 2029
Anger at Al Shaab 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.
Match30 Dec 2028
Nowhere to hide for Al Shaab
0‑3 against Sharjah, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match30 Dec 2028
7 matches without a win for Al Shaab
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Al Shaab are no longer polite ones.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Al Shaab
Majed Khalfan 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Al Shaab
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ali Hassan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“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.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Dec 2028
Nowhere to hide for Al Shaab
1‑5 against Al Ain, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad25 Dec 2028
45 days out for Oussama Ounahi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al Shaab will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match23 Dec 2028
No end in sight to Al Shaab's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al Shaab has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Majed Khalfan 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.
Match23 Dec 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al Shaab and Al Ain, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Al Shaab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rashid Mabkhout 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 dugout25 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Ali Hassan
“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.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout25 Dec 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 1‑5 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Dec 2028
Al Shaab are in real trouble now
Position 13, 5 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad18 Dec 2028
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match16 Dec 2028
No end in sight to Al Shaab's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al Shaab has to find a result from somewhere.
Match16 Dec 2028
Al Shaab cannot find the net
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Rashid Mabkhout 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 dugout18 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Rashid Juma
“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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Ahmed Fawzi 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.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Dec 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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match9 Dec 2028
4 matches without a win for Al Shaab
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Al Shaab are no longer polite ones.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Rashid Juma 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.
Match9 Dec 2028
4 matches without a goal for Al Shaab
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout11 Dec 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.
Match9 Dec 2028
A bad afternoon for Al Shaab against Dibba
0‑1 to Dibba, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Mobin Dehghan 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.
Looking ahead11 Dec 2028
A six-pointer for Al Shaab
Baniyas next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 Dec 2028
Supporters organise against the Al Shaab board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al Shaab
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match2 Dec 2028
0‑3 to Al Dhafra, 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.
Market4 Dec 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad4 Dec 2028
There were 8 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rashid Mabkhout and Al Shaab agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Rashid Juma 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Nov 2028
A fracture rules Oussama Ounahi out for 75 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Shaab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Al Shaab
Rashid Juma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Rashid Mabkhout 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 dugout27 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ali Hassan, and the manager let it.
Match25 Nov 2028
0‑1 to Al Wahda, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match27 Nov 2028
Halfway: Al Shaab sit in position 13
4 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout27 Nov 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Ahmed Rashid
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Looking ahead27 Nov 2028
Al Dhafra next, and one man in the Al Shaab dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Nov 2028
Al Shaab are in real trouble now
Position 13, 4 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market20 Nov 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Al Shaab can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad20 Nov 2028
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.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rashid Mabkhout, and the manager let it.
Match18 Nov 2028
0‑1 to Al Fujairah, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad20 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Al Shaab
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mobin Dehghan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
Nobody could get near Ali Hassan
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Nov 2028
At last: Al Shaab win one
53 matches without a win, and then this, against Emirates Club. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad13 Nov 2028
A fracture rules Oussama Ounahi out for 91 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Shaab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match11 Nov 2028
Rashid Ismail wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Rashid Ismail found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Emirates Club went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.25, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words exchanged at Al Shaab
Rashid Ismail 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Al Shaab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rashid Mabkhout 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.
Match11 Nov 2028
Three points for Al Shaab, 1‑0 the final word against Emirates Club in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Boardroom13 Nov 2028
92% of the income goes out in wages at Al Shaab
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Nov 2028
53 matches without a win for Al Shaab
The run now stands at 53, and the questions being asked around Al Shaab are no longer polite ones.
The terraces6 Nov 2028
Anger at Al Shaab 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market6 Nov 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 Nov 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al Shaab
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market6 Nov 2028
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words exchanged at Al Shaab
Majed Khalfan 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.
Match4 Nov 2028
No clean sheets in sight for Al Shaab
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Oct 2028
52 matches without a win for Al Shaab
The run now stands at 52, and the questions being asked around Al Shaab are no longer polite ones.
Match28 Oct 2028
Chastening afternoon for Al Shaab
A 0‑3 beating by Al Shabab was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad30 Oct 2028
A fracture rules Oussama Ounahi out for 105 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Shaab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad30 Oct 2028
A falling-out at Al Shaab
Rashid Mabkhout and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Al Shaab will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Match28 Oct 2028
No clean sheets in sight for Al Shaab
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Ali Hassan
“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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Mobin Dehghan 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.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
Nobody left the Al Shaab dressing room in a hurry
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Oct 2028
The wait goes on for Al Shaab
51 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.
Match23 Oct 2028
Al Shaab sink to position 14
1 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad23 Oct 2028
114 days out for Oussama Ounahi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al Shaab will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad23 Oct 2028
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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
A muscle injury and 16 days out for Rashid Mabkhout
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Al Shaab will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Al Shaab
Rashid Juma 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
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gustavo Mueller, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
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 1‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.