The Al Shabab Post
The terraces4 Jan 2027
The mood at Al Shabab 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Al Shabab
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al Shabab is running low.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Ahmed Al Hammadi damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Nasser Al Menhali has until the next board meeting
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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Nobody could get near Amer Al Naqbi
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
A brace, and Fahad Rashid takes the afternoon — 8.61
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fahad Rashid provided it, and the 8.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market4 Jan 2027
Al Shabab say no — this time
The offer from MC Alger for Bandar Saeed 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Fahad Abdulrahman 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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammad Daneshgar 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.
In brief
- Match Fahad Rashid sends Al Shabab past Al Dhafra
- The terraces The crowd has taken to Fahad Rashid
- Squad Abdullah Obaid out for 14 days