The Al Shaab Sentinel
The terraces4 Jan 2027
The mood at Al Shaab 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Al Shaab taken apart
1‑4 to Sharjah, 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Khalid Al Hashmi breaks a bone — 28 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market4 Jan 2027
Ahmed Al Hashmi hands in a written request
“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.
Match2 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Al Shaab
4 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Abdullah Al Kamali 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
One of those days for Ahmed Al Hashmi
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.47, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
Abdullah Obaid keeps scoring at Al Jazira
15 appearances away from home and 13 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Ahmed Al Hashmi 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.
In brief
- Player ratings Nobody could get near Abdullah Al Kamali
- Squad Al Shaab count the cost of losing Khalfan Khalfan
- Boardroom Nobody left the Al Shaab dressing room in a hurry