Marked for Rashid Suqrat
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad8 Feb 2027
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al Dhafra lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al Dhafra may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market8 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ibrahim Bayesh and Al Dhafra agree another 4 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Ibrahim Bayesh
13 goals and a season average of 7.33 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match6 Feb 2027
Al Dhafra keep winning on the road
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Match6 Feb 2027
Whatever happens, Al Dhafra do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Al Dhafra asked and Lecce said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Al Dhafra
Khalil Ibrahim 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Feb 2027
Rashid Suqrat damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
Al Nasr come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al Dhafra did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Al Dhafra 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
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at River Plate is saying, and nobody at Al Dhafra is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Khalil Ibrahim and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Al Dhafra
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rostand Djooh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match30 Jan 2027
The run is over for Al Dhafra
4 matches without defeat, and then Al Ain. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rashid Suqrat
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al Dhafra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match23 Jan 2027
Al Dhafra strike at the death to beat Dibba
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Dibba had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Al Dhafra did not stop to explain themselves.
Market25 Jan 2027
Al Shabab come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al Dhafra did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market25 Jan 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 Dhafra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match23 Jan 2027
Al Dhafra make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Al Dhafra have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Ibrahim Bayesh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A season average of 7.30 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al Nasr have kept their man, and Al Dhafra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match23 Jan 2027
Dibba made Al Dhafra work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Abderahmane Soussi damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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 Aug 2026
Jobson 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 dugout10 Aug 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ali Al Bloushi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Khalid Al Shamsi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Walid Al Menhali has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rashid Suqrat is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad10 Aug 2026
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Ajax have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.