Marked for Jack Hendry
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester City have kept their man, and Stoke City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Jan 2028
The offer from Oldham Athletic for Ben Wilmot 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.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Roméo Lavia pops up at the right end — 7.85
7.85, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Market10 Jan 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus Edwards 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.
Boardroom10 Jan 2028
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Harrison McMahon has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Stoke City have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Match8 Jan 2028
Roméo Lavia scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Brighton, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jack Hendry, and the manager let it.
Match10 Jan 2028
The half-term report on Stoke City
Position 19, 11 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market20 Dec 2027
Only the photograph left for Milan Smit
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Milan Smit will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stoke City the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match14 Dec 2027
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Stoke City
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcus Edwards was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Bosun Lawal
“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 terraces20 Dec 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Enzo Kana-Biyik 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Loan watch20 Dec 2027
“I did not go to Brighton to sit and watch. I want to come back to Stoke City and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.32 for the rest of it.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
Jack Hendry 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
44 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Loan watch18 Oct 2027
“I watch every Stoke City game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Plymouth Argyle runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad18 Oct 2027
6 new faces, and Stoke City 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Market18 Oct 2027
The Bosun Lawal story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bosun Lawal signs something — a contract at Stoke City or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
No place in the plan for Jack Hendry
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Oct 2027
The Sorba Thomas story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sorba Thomas signs something — a contract at Stoke City or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout11 Oct 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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Rhys Healey 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Stoke City will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Jack Hendry has started doing his badges
“I watch sessions differently now. I catch myself thinking about why we are doing the drill.” At 32 that is how nearly every man in a dugout started.
Squad11 Oct 2027
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Stoke City the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match13 Mar 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Al-Shoulla, and it could have been more.
Match13 Mar 2027
Al-Ettifaq make home a hard place to visit
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.95, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Rayane Messi, 19, steals the show — 7.92
Marked 7.92 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Age has not caught Álvaro Medrán yet — 8.15
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.15 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Álvaro Medrán
19 goals and a season average of 7.31 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match13 Mar 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Al-Ettifaq have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad15 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 Al-Ettifaq know it.
Boardroom15 Mar 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.35, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad8 Mar 2027
18 goals and a season average of 7.28. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Álvaro Medrán and Al-Ettifaq agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 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 Al-Ettifaq know it.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Yusuf Akçiçek 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.
Match6 Mar 2027
Three points for Al-Ettifaq, 2‑1 the final word against Ohod in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Abdoulaye Kanté ran the middle of the pitch — 7.14
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.14, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The terraces8 Mar 2027
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Marked 8.04 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match2 Jan 2027
7 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.
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-Ettifaq, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Al-Ettifaq have had the benefit of it.
Market4 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Mohau Nkota again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Ahli. Al-Ettifaq are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Georginio Wijnaldum and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
8 goals and a season average of 7.44. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match2 Jan 2027
Al-Ettifaq are at home on the road
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Match2 Jan 2027
A 1‑0 win over Al-Fayha, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.26, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“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-Ettifaq, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 10 in, 12 out at Al-Ettifaq
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 12 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Abdulbasit Hindi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Sultan Harun
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Abdoulaye Kanté is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Marek Rodák. Al-Ettifaq will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Market7 Sep 2026
The name of Moussa Dembélé keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Al-Ettifaq say nothing, which says plenty.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Al-Hazem in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Marek Rodák
There were 7 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from Al-Taawoun for Abdullah Madu 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Abdulbasit Hindi 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Mohau Nkota
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
4 Al-Ettifaq players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Bandar Al-Dosari chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Abdullah Khateeb dropped after a run of poor form
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mohau Nkota has had enough of the bench
“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-Ettifaq will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.