Marked for Omar Khalfan
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Aug 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 Ohod can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ohod may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
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Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The paperwork begins on Mishal Saad
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ohod have done the hard part with Al-Riyadh, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ahli have kept their man, and Ohod go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Hassan Al-Shamrani 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.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match28 Aug 2027
Ohod and Al-Hazem take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
In brief
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Squad
Tempers go at Ohod
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Aseel Al-Sharif
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saleh Al-Qumayzi
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ohod lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The deal with Al-Wehda 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Al-Hilal wanted more than $850.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad26 Jul 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 Ohod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Ohod asked and Al-Ahli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market26 Jul 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sultan Al-Harbi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market26 Jul 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nasser Al-Mansour has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market26 Jul 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sami Al-Mansour is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market26 Jul 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Abdullah Al-Shammari has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ohod lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
Pressure builds in the Ohod boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market19 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
Al-Ettifaq come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ohod did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The offer went to Al-Hilal this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Najran keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Ohod
Mohammed Abdulrahman 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 targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ettifaq have kept their man, and Ohod go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Al-Ettifaq 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
Uneasy
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Al Shabab
Mehdi Bourabia 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Nicolas Nkoulou 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Al Shabab are still strangers to each other
6 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.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdelilah Hafidi, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Al Shabab would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Nicolas Nkoulou has written the date down.
Market15 Mar 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Amer Hassan’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.