Marked for Bandar Al-Ghamdi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Ohod to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Mojzel and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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 Talal Al-Qahtani is on it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bandar Al-Ghamdi, and the manager let it.
Market16 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Hamad Al-Dosari’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Simone Ferraro 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 Simone Ferraro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market16 Nov 2026
Al-Mojzel have let the market know Hamad Al-Dosari can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Home comforts ahead for Al-Mojzel
Al-Batin, position 9, come to town on Saturday. Nobody will call it a big game and nobody at the club will be treating it as anything else.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Al-Mojzel
Abdullah Al-Dossari 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“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 dugout5 Oct 2026
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 1‑2 Saeed Al-Mutairi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mohammed Al-Sultan 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Sultan Al-Sultan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Al-Mojzel asked and Al-Diriyah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Faisal Al-Salem has come up in conversations Al-Mojzel were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Rashid Al-Dawsari 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Al-Ittihad: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“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-Mojzel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.