Marked for Waleed Al-Enezi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Nov 2027
15 matches without a win for Al-Mojzel
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Al-Mojzel are no longer polite ones.
Match8 Nov 2027
Every point is an argument now for Al-Mojzel
Position 16 and 3 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market8 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at Al-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Al-Mojzel
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saeed Al-Salem was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Tebogo Makungo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match6 Nov 2027
Al-Orobah left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch8 Nov 2027
“I did not go to Al-Diriyah to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Mojzel and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
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 0‑2 Ahmed Al-Sulami left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Rashid Al-Enezi
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Rashid Al-Enezi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Al-Mojzel have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match9 Oct 2027
No end in sight to Al-Diriyah's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Diriyah has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Tebogo Masemola 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.
Market11 Oct 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rashid Al-Shehri 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.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
7.85, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Al-Diriyah had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Rashid Al-Hassan after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout11 Oct 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Rashid Al Bloushi 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.
Match9 Oct 2027
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Al-Saudi Al-Watani came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Oct 2027
11 matches without a win for Al-Mojzel
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Al-Mojzel are no longer polite ones.
Match11 Oct 2027
Al-Mojzel are in real trouble now
Position 16, 3 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market11 Oct 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.
Squad11 Oct 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 Al-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match9 Oct 2027
Al-Mojzel cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Robert Luthuli 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.
Match9 Oct 2027
0‑1 to Al-Wehda, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Loan watch11 Oct 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 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ahmed Al-Sulami after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Oct 2027
6 matches without a win for Al-Diriyah
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Al-Diriyah are no longer polite ones.
The dugout4 Oct 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Idrissa Gueye and Al-Diriyah agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Georges-Kévin Nkoudou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Al-Diriyah
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tebogo Masemola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
130% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Diriyah
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Shots: 12. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Rashid Al-Hassan was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Al-Diriyah dressing room was either.
Match2 Oct 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Al-Mojzel will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Sep 2027
1‑4 to Al-Fayha, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market13 Sep 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
No end in sight to Al-Mojzel's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Mojzel has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 Sep 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 Al-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad13 Sep 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.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
The window shuts on the Arwin Javad deal
Al-Mojzel ran out of time with Al-Ta'ee. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The dugout13 Sep 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.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market26 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Qadisiyah waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Diriyah is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match26 Jul 2027
Al-Diriyah are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 72 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Georges-Kévin Nkoudou 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Nawaf Al-Zaaqi has left for Al-Ra'ed in a $200.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market26 Jul 2027
Ali Al-Masoud has left for Al-Batin in a $200.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Al-Diriyah asked and Damac said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Salem Abdullah 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Al-Diriyah are $32.4M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ibrahim Zaied and Al-Diriyah agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.