Marked for Salem Al-Nemer
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Hamad Al-Sultan has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Jul 2027
Ahmed Bamasud 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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Ahmed Bamasud 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Santiago Martínez 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Nikita Antipov
“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.
Market5 Jul 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Al-Mojzel will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Jun 2027
Al-Mojzel say no — this time
The offer from Ohod for Khalid Al-Qahtani 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
The Al-Jeel deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Salman Al-Ahmadi reports back to Al-Mojzel with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad14 Jun 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Martínez 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.
Loan watch14 Jun 2027
“I watch every Al-Mojzel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hajer runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market14 Jun 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Salem Al-Nemer has his answer from Al-Mojzel; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 May 2027
Fahad Al-Sulami 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Ahmed Bamasud 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Ahmed Al-Harbi 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
Squad7 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Ahmed Al-Harbi out for 30 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Mojzel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Martínez 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Nikita Antipov 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.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Wages eat 101% of everything Al-Mojzel earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match5 Dec 2026
Point won or two lost for Al-Mojzel?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Al-Jeel? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market7 Dec 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Chances created: 6. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.