Marked for Hamdan Saeed
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Feb 2028
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Still nobody in the Al Shabab dugout
37 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Hamdan Saeed 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.
Market7 Feb 2028
Lucas Bernal has left for Al Wahda in a $360.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Match5 Feb 2028
A 3‑2 win over Emirates Club, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Ninety minutes of Nasser Suqrat at his very best
Marked 9.45. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al Shabab.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Nasser Suqrat
13 goals and a season average of 7.25 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Emirates Club will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ahmed Ibrahim has pre-agreed a move to Al Shabab, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The terraces7 Feb 2028
At 20 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Dec 2027
The small margins put Al Shabab out
Out, 1‑3 to Al Ain, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match20 Dec 2027
Al Shabab are in real trouble now
Position 12, 8 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Hamdan Saeed 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Khalid Rashid 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
Al Wasl left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Dec 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad13 Dec 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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khalid Rashid 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.
Match11 Dec 2027
Nasser Suqrat scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Al Nasr, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad13 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hamdan Saeed, and the manager let it.
Market13 Dec 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Saeed Abdulrahman’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Loan watch13 Dec 2027
Alberto Ocejo would rather not come back
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Sivasspor suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Al Shabab, and the summer will force it.
Market13 Dec 2027
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Al Shabab could get for him.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 6. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Nov 2027
Beaten 1‑4 by Dibba, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match22 Nov 2027
Al Shabab are in real trouble now
Position 13, 5 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.
Match20 Nov 2027
No end in sight to Al Shabab's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al Shabab has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Khalid Rashid 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Evans Ampofo 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.
Boardroom22 Nov 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
Squad25 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Khalfan Hussain
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Shabab lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match25 Oct 2027
Al Shabab sink to position 14
2 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match23 Oct 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Al Jazira, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Saeed Khalfan 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Hamdan Saeed gets it from the manager
“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 Oct 2027
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Al Kamali 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
Crisis
Squad18 Oct 2027
Khalfan Hussain damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
Nowhere to hide for Al Shabab
1‑5 against Sharjah, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad18 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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match16 Oct 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al Shabab and Sharjah, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nasser Suqrat 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
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 15 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces13 Sep 2027
Anger at Al Shabab spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match11 Sep 2027
Chastening afternoon for Al Shabab
A 1‑4 beating by Al Nasr was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match11 Sep 2027
No end in sight to Al Shabab's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al Shabab has to find a result from somewhere.
Market13 Sep 2027
Only the photograph left for Khalid Butti
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Khalid Butti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al Shabab the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Oumarou Diadje is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abdullah Al Shamsi and Al Shabab agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Hamdan Saeed 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Aug 2027
Al Shabab sink to position 14
8 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market30 Aug 2027
Zob Ahan come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al Shabab did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market30 Aug 2027
Khalid Butti hands in a written request
“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 Shabab can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Saeed Abdulrahman is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Saeed Khalfan 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
At 34 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market26 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Hamdan Saeed 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Jun 2027
Al Shabab sink to position 14
8 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Hamdan Saeed 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alberto Ocejo commits to Al Shabab for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
The caretaker keeps it: Majed Obaid confirmed
A month of looking elsewhere ended where it started. He already knows every name in the building; the rest of it he now has to prove in public.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A fracture rules Ahmed Al Junaibi out for 14 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Shabab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Hamdan Saeed 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Feb 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al Shabab
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Ahmed Al Junaibi out for 105 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al Shabab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A brace, and Nasser Suqrat takes the afternoon — 8.49
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nasser Suqrat provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad1 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Khalid Rashid 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
Al Shaab made Al Shabab work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market1 Feb 2027
The name of Abdullah Hussain has come up in conversations Al Shabab were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Ali Al Kamali 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
Crisis
Match16 Jan 2027
21 matches without a win for Al Shabab
The run now stands at 21, and the questions being asked around Al Shabab are no longer polite ones.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match18 Jan 2027
Al Shabab sink to position 14
3 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match16 Jan 2027
Chastening afternoon for Al Shabab
A 1‑4 beating by Sharjah was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 120 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Jan 2027
The paperwork is done: Oumarou Diadje joins from Al Wahda in a deal worth $390.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad18 Jan 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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Al Shabab training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khalid Rashid 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.
Boardroom18 Jan 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
Match9 Jan 2027
20 matches without a win for Al Shabab
The run now stands at 20, and the questions being asked around Al Shabab are no longer polite ones.
Market11 Jan 2027
Al Shabab say no — this time
The offer from Ittihad for Khalid Rashid 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nasser Omar is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Hamdan Saeed 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
Nasser Suqrat scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Baniyas, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market11 Jan 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Al Shabab will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad11 Jan 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Evans Ampofo gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 2026
There were 18 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
17 matches without a win for Al Shabab
The run now stands at 17, and the questions being asked around Al Shabab are no longer polite ones.
Match21 Dec 2026
Every point is an argument now for Al Shabab
Position 14 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Nowhere to hide for Al Shabab
0‑4 against Al Wasl, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match16 Dec 2026
The cup run ends for Al Shabab
0‑5 against Sharjah, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match19 Dec 2026
The goals have deserted Al Shabab
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al Shabab can tell you which week it ends in.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
Al Shabab are taken apart by Sharjah — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-5. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Khalid Rashid 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.
Squad21 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Nov 2026
13 matches without a win for Al Shabab
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Al Shabab are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Nov 2026
There were 9 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Saeed Khalfan 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Al Shabab cannot find the net
4 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Hamdan Saeed
“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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Al Ain left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Al Shabab's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al Shabab has to find a result from somewhere.
Match23 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Al Shabab
Position 14 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
0‑3 to Dibba, 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Al Shabab are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 9 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Hamdan Saeed 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
The goals have deserted Al Shabab
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al Shabab can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Jorge Bosmediano 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The medical room confirms 35 days on the sidelines for Ahmed Al Naqbi, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom23 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Al Shabab 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
There were 6 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Al Shabab
4 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Hamdan Saeed 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdullah Hussain is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohamed Mabkhout and Al Shabab agree another 1 years.
Match3 Oct 2026
Al Dhafra left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
A 2-goal lead gone for Al Shabab
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Al Wasl kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Al Shabab will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Squad21 Sep 2026
There were 6 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Saeed Khalfan 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nasser Omar is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hamdan Saeed, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
Al Fujairah come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al Shabab did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market31 Aug 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 Shabab, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 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 Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Aug 2026
Al Wahda pay $680.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market31 Aug 2026
Business is business: Saeed Suqrat goes
Al Wasl paid $420.0K and Al Shabab took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jorge Bosmediano 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.