Marked for Waleed Bakshween
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2027
0‑4 to Al-Qadisiyah, 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.
Market4 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 The request is on a desk at Al-Wehda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match2 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Al-Wehda's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Wehda has to find a result from somewhere.
Market4 Jan 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Wehda they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Farouk Chafaï 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Al-Wehda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Demba Diallo 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Al-Wehda cannot find the net
3 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Saeed Al-Muwallad, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Al-Wehda's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Wehda has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Dec 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-Wehda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Dec 2026
A bad afternoon for Al-Wehda against Hajer
0‑1 to Hajer, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Al-Wehda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Augustine Oladapo 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 watch28 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Al-Ettifaq to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Wehda and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Nov 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Wehda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Nov 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-Wehda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Demba Diallo 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
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Abdulrahman Al-Shammari: 4 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match14 Nov 2026
11 matches without a win for Al-Wehda
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Al-Wehda are no longer polite ones.
Match11 Nov 2026
Al-Wehda through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over Najran, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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.
Match14 Nov 2026
6 matches without a goal for Al-Wehda
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad16 Nov 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-Wehda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Nov 2026
Al-Khaleej left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolás Martínez, and the manager let it.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Al-Wehda's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Wehda has to find a result from somewhere.
Match24 Oct 2026
Al-Ahli left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Augustine Oladapo 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
Squad19 Oct 2026
There were 8 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Al-Wehda's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Wehda has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Demba Diallo 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
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Farouk Chafaï 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Wehda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Demba Diallo 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Sep 2026
Al-Wehda through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Al-Mojzel, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.18, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 24 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match12 Sep 2026
Al-Faisaly left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Saif Al-Omari 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Augustine Oladapo 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.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.62, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.