Marked for Sultan Mandash
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match4 Sep 2027
Another one collected away from home
15 on the bounce on the road for Al-Hilal. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Market6 Sep 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Hilal people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad6 Sep 2027
320 appearances across 17 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Al-Hilal know what they have.
Market6 Sep 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 The request is on a desk at Al-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Hilal may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match4 Sep 2027
Nobody wants to play Al-Hilal right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 22 gone
That is the business done at Al-Hilal 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yassine Bounou and Al-Hilal agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market6 Sep 2027
Al-Shabab paid $1.4M and Al-Hilal took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Sep 2027
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Yacine Adli reports back to Al-Shabab with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Al-Shabab 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.
Market6 Sep 2027
The fee is $1.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Al-Hilal drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Shabab may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The deal with Cambuur is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Sultan Mandash 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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 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.
Match4 Sep 2027
Al-Taawoun left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market6 Sep 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sami Al-Qahtani 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market30 Aug 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market30 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Hilal have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Mohamed Meïté, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.94
A mark of 7.94 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market30 Aug 2027
Naft Tehran come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Al-Hilal did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Yusuf Akçiçek is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match28 Aug 2027
Al-Hilal cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Al-Hilal
Kalidou Koulibaly and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“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.
Match28 Aug 2027
A 1‑0 win over Al-Qadisiyah, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Aug 2027
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match28 Aug 2027
5‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
The mood at Al-Shabab has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.46 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The deal with Al-Hilal is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Market30 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Shabab have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: ADO Den Haag keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match28 Aug 2027
Al-Shabab cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Shabab can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match14 Aug 2027
Another one collected away from home
13 on the bounce on the road for Al-Hilal. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Match14 Aug 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑0 against Al-Hazem, and it could have been more.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market16 Aug 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sultan Mandash had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Darwin Núñez takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market16 Aug 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Hilal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Al-Hilal
Crysencio Summerville and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Marked 9.95 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match14 Aug 2027
Darwin Núñez among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Darwin Núñez on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Hilal and Al-Hazem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Aug 2027
3‑0, and Yannick Carrasco took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Al-Shabab tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
A brace, and Yannick Carrasco takes the afternoon — 8.54
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yannick Carrasco provided it, and the 8.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Hilal keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“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.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
2 academy players handed senior numbers at Al-Shabab
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Transfer targets16 Aug 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Al-Shabab
Ali Al-Asmari 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Market16 Aug 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Talal Al-Juhani 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Hilal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market26 Jul 2027
Only the photograph left for Sabri Dahal
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sabri Dahal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Hilal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market26 Jul 2027
“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-Hilal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Jul 2027
He is 19, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad26 Jul 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-Hilal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Sergej Milinković-Savić may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
Yassine Bounou has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Al-Hilal will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market26 Jul 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Crysencio Summerville’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Jul 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market5 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Shabab waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Hilal is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market5 Jul 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-Hilal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Jul 2027
Al-Hilal say no — this time
The offer from Hajer for Moteb Al-Harbi 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Mohamed Meïté 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
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Al-Hilal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Salem Al-Dawsari, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Too much change too quickly at Al-Hilal
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Loan watch31 May 2027
24 appearances away from home and 81 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad31 May 2027
He is 19, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad31 May 2027
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Yusuf Akçiçek 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 dugout31 May 2027
Sabri Dahal gets it from the manager
“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.
Market31 May 2027
Abdullah Al-Zaid comes back from a loan that worked
28 appearances and 3 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Boardroom31 May 2027
Wages eat 111% of everything Al-Hilal 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Al-Hilal are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout31 May 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Théo Hernández is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 May 2027
Words exchanged at Najran
Sultan Mandash 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Bassem Ben Aissa 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.
Squad24 May 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Ahmed Al-Shehri for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Najran will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 May 2027
The mood at Najran has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match17 May 2027
Every point is an argument now for Najran
Position 14 and 4 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Tempers go at Najran
Sultan Mandash 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 dugout17 May 2027
“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.
The dugout17 May 2027
Hamad Al-Jayzani asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout17 May 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Hamad Al-Sayyaf has written the date down.
Market17 May 2027
The name of Omar Al-Ruwaili keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Najran say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad17 May 2027
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
Squad17 May 2027
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nasser Al-Saiari
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Najran lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad10 May 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 Najran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Najran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bassem Ben Aissa 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hamad Al-Jayzani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market10 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Adama Niane’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout10 May 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Hamad Al-Sayyaf has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 May 2027
105 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Najran lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom3 May 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Najran
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Najran is running low.
Boardroom3 May 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market3 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Najran can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 May 2027
Najran may not be able to give Marwan Ateya what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marwan Ateya wants continental football; whether Najran can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad3 May 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Najran know it.
Squad3 May 2027
A falling-out at Najran
Sultan Mandash and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Najran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bassem Ben Aissa 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.
The dugout3 May 2027
Marwan Ateya loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Marwan Ateya's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nasser Al-Saiari
115 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Najran lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market26 Apr 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 Najran, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Bandar Al-Ahmari: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Najran have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Najran
Sultan Mandash 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Najran. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces19 Apr 2027
Supporters organise against the Najran board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nasser Al-Saiari
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Najran lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match19 Apr 2027
Every point is an argument now for Najran
Position 14 and 4 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Najran
Sultan Mandash 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Bassem Ben Aissa 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 dugout19 Apr 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Hamad Al-Sayyaf has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Najran lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Najran
Sultan Mandash and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market12 Apr 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Saad Al-Enezi 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.
Market12 Apr 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Turki Al-Sheikh is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Bassem Ben Aissa 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
6 new faces, and Najran are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Market12 Apr 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Najran has been clear about where Abdulmajeed Al-Arishi stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market12 Apr 2027
The Adama Niane talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Najran know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
138 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Najran lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
Najran interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Abdullah Al-Nemer keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market5 Apr 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 Najran, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Apr 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 Najran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces22 Mar 2027
The mood at Najran has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Nasser Al-Saiari damages knee ligaments — 153 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 153 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.
Match22 Mar 2027
Najran sink to position 14
4 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Najran will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Hamad Al-Jayzani: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Najran have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Najran
Sultan Mandash 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Najran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bassem Ben Aissa 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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Najran, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Hussain Habkor has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 2027
161 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Najran lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Najran will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Najran
Sultan Mandash and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom15 Mar 2027
Najran still without a manager
14 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Market15 Mar 2027
The Adama Niane talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Najran know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Market8 Mar 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Hamza Sakhi commits to Najran for another 3 years.
Squad8 Mar 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 Najran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market8 Mar 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Salman Al-Ahmadi 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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Faisal Al-Juhani, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Bassem Ben Aissa 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.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
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news_b_severance_paid
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Mar 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Najran can pretend not to have heard.
Market1 Mar 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Najran heard it as anything else.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Najran know it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Najran
Sultan Mandash 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Najran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bassem Ben Aissa 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Najran than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces22 Feb 2027
Supporters organise against the Najran board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match22 Feb 2027
Najran are in real trouble now
Position 14, 4 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Najran
Sultan Mandash 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Too much change too quickly at Najran
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Wassim Al-Shehri 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Najran told Omar Al-Ruwaili something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Hussain Habkor
“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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Najran. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Najran
Sultan Mandash and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Adama Niane wants to finish where he started
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Najran now know that too.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The medical room confirms 35 days on the sidelines for Makan Samabaly, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Najran training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bassem Ben Aissa 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Diego Venancio, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ammar Al-Khaibari'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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Najran
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Najran is running low.
Match30 Jan 2027
Nowhere to hide for Najran
0‑3 against Al-Wehda, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market1 Feb 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 Najran, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Window shuts: 7 in, 0 out at Najran
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Marwan Ateya in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Najran this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Adama Niane
“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.
Market1 Feb 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hicham Khaloua has his answer from Najran; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The formation has left Sultan Mandash behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Najran will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Najran dressing room in a hurry
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The dugout
Saad Al-Enezi: “No excuses”
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Squad
Words at Najran training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Supporters organise against the Najran board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match25 Jan 2027
Najran are in real trouble now
Position 14, 4 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
A hiding for Najran
Beaten 1‑4 by Al-Qadisiyah, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market25 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Najran can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Al-Hilal, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Najran
Matija Gluščević and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Marwan Ateya at his very best
Marked 8.13. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Najran.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Najran
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bassem Ben Aissa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead25 Jan 2027
Najran face Al-Wehda in the game that matters most
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.