4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
A brace, and Ahmed Hassan takes the afternoon — 9.39
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ahmed Hassan provided it, and the 9.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al Shabab have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Al Fujairah were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Bandar Al Bloushi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
“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.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 17 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Al Shabab until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Fahad Mabkhout 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mansoor Al-Harbi and Al Shabab agree another 3 years.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Abdullah Abdulrahman is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Youssef Ismail is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bandar Hassan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladimir Prijović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
3 goals in 23 games at Baniyas — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al Shabab updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Rayan Yaslam a promise
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Allan Nyom was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nasser Mabkhout 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.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Nobody at Al Shabab will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Allan Nyom was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
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.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Al Ain.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Shabab may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Al Shabab until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Allan Nyom 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Portsmouth have kept their man, and Al Shabab go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Vladimir Prijović.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sharjah have kept their man, and Al Shabab go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abdoulaye Touré. 2‑1 against Al Shaab, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” the manager, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 Youssef Ismail is on it.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Taoufik Ijrouten
“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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Abdalla Hatem, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.05
A mark of 8.05 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bandar Al Bloushi. 3‑1 against Al Dhafra, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Bandar Al Bloushi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ángel Galván is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
the manager has his say
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” the manager on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Fawaz Awana
Allan Nyom 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.
Marked 8.36 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Al Nasr scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
the manager: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad11 Dec 2028
The division's best last weekend was a Al Shabab man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Abdoulaye Touré was the best thing in any of them.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Fahad Mabkhout 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
the manager answers for it
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
5 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
the manager answers for it
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Bandar Hassan has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Abdoulaye Touré has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Hamdan Abdulrahman’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al Shabab needing him to play as if none of it matters.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abdoulaye Touré provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 dugout30 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” the manager, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Rayan Yaslam
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ahmed Hassan signs something — a contract at Al Shabab or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Allan Nyom 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.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yaman Zanirni, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Half-satisfied: the manager on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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.
The offer from Baniyas for Hamza Sakhi 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Dibba; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
42 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ahmed Hassan and Al Shabab agree another 5 years.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Hassan 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al Shabab has been clear about where Ahmed Hassan stands, which is more than many ever get.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
14 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sultan Saeed 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.
Ahmed Hassan 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Sultan Saeed 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al Shabab, and both men came out saying it was fine.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Al Shabab could ask drops and the wages Hamza Sakhi can ask rise.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Fahad Mabkhout plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Individual work, away from the group, aimed at one specific thing the coaches think is holding him back. It rarely makes the news and it is how most improvement actually happens.
10 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
32 points in position 10: too many to go down, too few to go anywhere. The honest description of a season like this is a shrug, and the supporters have already given it.
In brief
Loan watchAhmed Nader watches his loan from the bench
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Shabab lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hamza Sakhi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al Shabab the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Al Shabab will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Hamza Sakhi has agreed terms with Al Wahda for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Fahad Mabkhout 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Sultan Saeed 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 phone has started ringing about Ismail Al Hashmi again, and this time the name on the line is Stromsgodset. Al Shabab are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Al Shabab, and 6 appearances in 39 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 87% of everything Al Shabab earn
“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.
Fahad Mabkhout 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.
Al Nasr will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Waled Husain Abdulla has pre-agreed a move to Al Shabab, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leones have kept their man, and Al Shabab go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Hassan 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Al Wahda had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al Shabab can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
A brace, and Ahmed Hassan takes the afternoon — 9.10
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ahmed Hassan provided it, and the 9.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Al Ain for Youssef Ismail 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.
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.96, and nobody on the pitch better.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Al Shabab until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Allan Nyom 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sultan Saeed was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Shabab can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Khalid Butti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al Shabab the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Allan Nyom 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Sultan Saeed 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Al Shabab asked and Al Nasr said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
“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 Shabab, and it is not being withdrawn.
Al Shabab asked and Al Wasl said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Salem Al Naqbi 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.92 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Allan Nyom 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.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Sultan Saeed 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.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sultan Saeed was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Saeed Nader after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al Shabab is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Ahmed Hassan 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.
Minute 88, against Al Nasr, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al Shabab, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Youssef Ismail decided nobody was going anywhere. Al Ain had no time left to answer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al Shabab have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Allan Nyom 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sultan Saeed 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.
Half the programme played, position 10, 14 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Saeed Nader on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
SquadA Al Shabab teenager takes the young player award