Marked for Sami Al-Ghamdi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 May 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The terraces3 May 2027
Supporters organise against the Al-Mojzel board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market3 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 The request is on a desk at Al-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom3 May 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Al-Mojzel
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Mojzel is running low.
The dugout3 May 2027
This is not rotation. Omar Al-Sulami has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al-Mojzel is pretending otherwise.
Squad3 May 2027
Lerato Ntamane 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Talal Al-Juhani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout3 May 2027
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Ibrahim Al-Dosari was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The dugout3 May 2027
Lerato Ntamane asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Apr 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Waleed Al-Shammari and Al-Mojzel agree another 4 years.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Sami Al-Ghamdi 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Al-Mojzel
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fahad Al-Qahtani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Lerato Ntamane knocks on the manager's door
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Apr 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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
This is not rotation. Ibrahim Al-Dosari has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al-Mojzel is pretending otherwise.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amin Abu Khalifa 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Talal Al-Juhani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
33 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Sami Al-Ghamdi knocks on the manager's door
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Apr 2027
16 matches without a win for Al-Mojzel
The run now stands at 16, and the questions being asked around Al-Mojzel are no longer polite ones.
Market5 Apr 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.
Match5 Apr 2027
The season ends: position 13 for Al-Mojzel
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 21 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
A brace, and Sultan Al-Ghamdi takes the afternoon — 8.85
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sultan Al-Ghamdi provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Mojzel
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
This is not rotation. Omar Al-Sulami has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al-Mojzel is pretending otherwise.
Match3 Apr 2027
Al-Mojzel leaking at the back
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hamad Ahmed is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Sami Al-Ghamdi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sami Al-Sheikh and Al-Mojzel agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Al-Mojzel
Yasser Al-Sheikh 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 dugout29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yasser Al-Salem, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Sami Al-Sheikh 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 Sami Al-Sheikh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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 Yasser Al-Salem is on it.
Market29 Mar 2027
Al-Mojzel have made Sami Al-Ghamdi available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market29 Mar 2027
The name of Sultan Al-Ghamdi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Al-Mojzel say nothing, which says plenty.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Next up at home: Al-Shoulla, who go into it in position 14. The kind of fixture a season is quietly built on or quietly loses its shape in.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A rating of 6.66 was enough for the selectors, and nobody who watched the match is going to argue with them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Mar 2027
13 matches without a win for Al-Mojzel
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Al-Mojzel are no longer polite ones.
Market8 Mar 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.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
This is not rotation. Omar Al-Sulami has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al-Mojzel is pretending otherwise.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Sami Al-Ghamdi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match6 Mar 2027
1‑2 to Al-Batin, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sami Al-Ghamdi, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Waleed Al-Juhani to a room that had heard them before.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Sami Al-Sheikh named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Sami Al-Sheikh is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Feb 2027
12 matches without a win for Al-Mojzel
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Al-Mojzel are no longer polite ones.
Match27 Feb 2027
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Waleed Al-Shammari will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Al-Mojzel escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Market1 Mar 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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.12 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
No sign of nerves from Sultan Al-Ghamdi at 20 — 8.33
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sultan Al-Ghamdi did not need any: 8.33, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad1 Mar 2027
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Al-Mojzel know it.
The terraces1 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Sultan Al-Ghamdi 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amin Abu Khalifa 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Al-Mojzel
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Al-Mojzel
Talal Al-Juhani 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 terraces22 Feb 2027
At 21 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Amin Abu Khalifa 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
A goal on 91 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nasser Al-Juhani, and the manager let it.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Marked 7.42. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hamad Ahmed and Al-Mojzel agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match20 Feb 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Al-Mojzel's wait for a win
10 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Nowhere to hide for Al-Mojzel
0‑3 against Al-Riyadh, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market15 Feb 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match13 Feb 2027
Al-Mojzel leaking at the back
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad15 Feb 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
This is not rotation. Ibrahim Al-Dosari has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al-Mojzel is pretending otherwise.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ibrahim Al-Dosari, and the manager let it.
Boardroom15 Feb 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Feb 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
8 matches without a win for Al-Mojzel
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Al-Mojzel are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Marked 7.86 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Al-Mojzel 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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Hazem keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match30 Jan 2027
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fahad Al-Qahtani and Al-Mojzel agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Al-Mojzel asked and Al-Ra'ed said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Jan 2027
Beaten 1‑4 by Al-Hazem, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market25 Jan 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
7 matches without a win for Al-Mojzel
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Al-Mojzel are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Sultan Al-Ghamdi, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.94
A mark of 7.94 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Mojzel have done the hard part with Al-Hazem, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Fateh have kept their man, and Al-Mojzel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Al-Mojzel
Talal Al-Juhani 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 dugout25 Jan 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Fahad Al-Qahtani 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Dec 2026
“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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Sami Al-Ghamdi 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Al-Mojzel caught on 96 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Al-Jeel scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Match26 Dec 2026
3‑3, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ali Al-Sheikh commits to Al-Mojzel for another 3 years.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Waleed Al-Juhani chose the glass-half-full version of 3‑3; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ali Al-Ghamdi, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Sami Al-Ghamdi asks for a word with the manager
“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
Crisis
Market21 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match19 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amin Abu Khalifa 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Waleed Al-Juhani after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
The dugout21 Dec 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 Fahad Al-Shammari is on it.
Market21 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Sultan Al-Ghamdi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match18 Nov 2026
Al-Shabab ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market23 Nov 2026
“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.
Match21 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Saad Al-Dawsari’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Al-Mojzel.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Amin Abu Khalifa 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 8.28 — 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fahad Al-Qahtani 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.14, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Nov 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.
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.
The dugout16 Nov 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
Sami Al-Ghamdi asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Market16 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Waleed Al-Shammari’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
Market16 Nov 2026
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Al-Mojzel could get for him.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The training reports on Faisal Al-Essa are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match7 Nov 2026
Nowhere to hide for Al-Mojzel
1‑4 against Damac, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Waleed Al-Shammari did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Al-Mojzel
Sami Al-Ghamdi 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The medical room confirms 58 days on the sidelines for Talal Al-Mutairi, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fahad Al-Qahtani 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 dugout9 Nov 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.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Al-Mojzel dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
Nowhere to hide for Al-Mojzel
0‑3 against Al-Riyadh, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout26 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.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Waleed Al-Juhani to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Ali Al-Ghamdi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al-Mojzel 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saeed Al-Shammari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
Nowhere to hide for Al-Mojzel
0‑4 against Al-Hazem, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market28 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Talal Al-Juhani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market28 Sep 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Talal Al-Juhani has his answer from Al-Mojzel; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout28 Sep 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.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Beaten 4 times, 2 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Al-Fayha, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sami Al-Ghamdi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Al-Mojzel dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Sep 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 0‑3 Waleed Al-Juhani left the room before anybody could ask which.
Market21 Sep 2026
Al-Mojzel have let the market know Omar Al-Sulami can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Sami Al-Ghamdi 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 Sami Al-Ghamdi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 8 in, 0 out at Al-Mojzel
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Lerato Ntamane 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ibrahim Al-Dosari is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ibrahim Al-Dosari is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Al-Mojzel will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Faisal Al-Essa 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 Faisal Al-Essa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Market31 Aug 2026
ES Setif come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al-Mojzel did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Mojzel have done the hard part with Al-Hilal, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Talal Al-Juhani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Hazem have kept their man, and Al-Mojzel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lerato Ntamane 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Al-Ta'ee, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Lerato Ntamane
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Waleed Al-Shammari commits to Al-Mojzel for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Diriyah have kept their man, and Al-Mojzel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ibrahim Al-Dosari, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fahad Al-Qahtani 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
31 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
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
Sami Al-Ghamdi 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.
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Al-Mojzel
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fahad Al-Qahtani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sami Al-Hassan and Al-Mojzel agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Meshal Sibyani is in the works
Al-Mojzel have made the call to Al-Ettifaq. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Mojzel, another week without a signature from Fahad Al-Qahtani.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Sami Al-Ghamdi knocks on the manager's door
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A decision that decides nothing on the pitch and everything in the room. The manager has said, without saying it, whose voice he wants heard when his own is not there.