Marked for Khaled Ebraheim
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
Caio Lucas 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
Wages eat 108% of everything Sharjah 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Feta Fetai 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Feb 2027
9 matches without a win for Sharjah
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Sharjah are no longer polite ones.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Caio Lucas 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Khaled Ebraheim
“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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.28, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Wages eat 126% of everything Sharjah 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
No place for Allan Nyom on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Sharjah pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Sharjah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Feta Fetai 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.