Position 16 and 10 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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Clayton Diandy, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.27
A mark of 8.27 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Saudi Al-Watani have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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-Saudi Al-Watani can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Al-Abdullah 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.
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-Saudi Al-Watani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Al-Saudi Al-Watani will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ali Al-Enezi did not need any: 8.11, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
6 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.
The name of Waleed Al-Khaibari has come up in conversations Al-Mojzel were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ali Al-Enezi 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.
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.
The offer from Al-Orobah for Talal Al-Zahrani 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.
5 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.
“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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Mojzel can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Youssef Al-Sultan 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.
“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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Mojzel can tell you which week it ends in.
Youssef Al-Sultan 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Nasser Al-Hassan's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Saad Al-Qahtani 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.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Al-Mojzel will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saeed Al-Harbi 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.
At 23 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Al-Ta'ee? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saeed Al-Harbi 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.
Faisal Al-Subaie 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sami Al-Juhani and Al-Mojzel agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fahad Al-Shehri 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.