Marked for Ahmed Al-Juhani
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 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 Al-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
An offer of $340.0K for Arwin Javad
Al-Mojzel have gone to Al-Ta'ee with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad23 Aug 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-Mojzel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ta'ee have kept their man, and Al-Mojzel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Al-Mojzel
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robert Luthuli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“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.
Market23 Aug 2027
Al-Diriyah are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Al-Mojzel will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Loan watch23 Aug 2027
“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-Mojzel, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 May 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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 May 2027
Youssef Al-Dosari 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Nasser Al-Sheikh 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Tebogo Makungo wants to finish where he started
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Al-Mojzel now know that too.
Boardroom31 May 2027
Wages swallow 114% of the Al-Mojzel income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Market31 May 2027
Faisal Al-Sheikh returns from a loan that gave him nothing
1 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Mojzel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market17 May 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-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Salem Al-Juhani 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 dugout17 May 2027
Saeed Al-Salem 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.
The dugout17 May 2027
Saeed Al-Salem knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saeed Al-Salem trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market17 May 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Mojzel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.