Marked for Ahmed Al-Dosari
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Dec 2026
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Mojzel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match14 Dec 2026
Al-Mojzel are in real trouble now
Position 14, 7 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.
Squad14 Dec 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Al-Mojzel
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Sami Al-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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ali Al-Shammari after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Ahmed Al-Dosari
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Faisal Al-Ahmadi 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ali Al-Rashid
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Ali Al-Shammari has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match5 Dec 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Rodrygo Figueiredo 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Juninho 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.
The dugout7 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.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Wages swallow 100% of the Al-Mojzel income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
Juninho's mistake decides it
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Squad
A place in the month's best eleven for Éder Peixoto
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Oct 2026
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.
Match31 Oct 2026
13 matches without a goal for Al-Mojzel
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 13 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
Anger at Al-Mojzel 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ali Al-Rashid damages knee ligaments — 81 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 81 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Al-Batin left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout2 Nov 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ali Al-Shammari to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Omar Al-Shehri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Éder Peixoto named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Éder Peixoto is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.