Marked for Marcelo Grohe
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match18 Nov 2026
Al-Shabab march on in the cup
Al-Riyadh are out and Al-Shabab go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match21 Nov 2026
Nowhere to hide for Al-Shabab
1‑5 against Al-Hilal, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match18 Nov 2026
Abdulaziz Al-Othman wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Abdulaziz Al-Othman found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Al-Riyadh went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Josh Brownhill did the work nobody counts — 7.16
16 combined actions and 7.16. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Marcelo Grohe 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Haroune Camara pulls a muscle — 15 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Match21 Nov 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Shabab and Al-Hilal, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The dugout23 Nov 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.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ali Azaizeh 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Roger Martínez out for 15 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Shabab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Al-Shabab
Marcelo Grohe 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
Market16 Nov 2026
The Yacine Adli talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Shabab know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ali Al-Bulayhi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Shabab needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes Marcelo Grohe a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Shabab. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdulaziz Al-Othman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
9 starts and an average of 6.68. He went there to play and he is playing, which is the only thing a loan was ever for.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
9 starts and a season average of 6.55. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
57 days out for Roger Martínez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Shabab will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Marcelo Grohe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Josh Brownhill’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Al-Shabab, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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 Dhari Al-Anazi has written the date down.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Looking ahead: the trip to Al-Ra'ed
Position 11 for the hosts, a long journey for the away end, and a fixture that will look ordinary on paper right up until it is not.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Saad Yaslam named in the team of the week
A rating of 6.65 was enough for the selectors, and nobody who watched the match is going to argue with them.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
5 starts now, an average of 6.63, and the team sheet at Al-Nahda has stopped being a question. Exactly what everybody signed up for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Roger Martínez out for 65 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Shabab will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad5 Oct 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-Shabab this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 175% of the Al-Shabab income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Al-Taawoun to sit and watch. I want to come back to Al-Shabab and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 8 matches say the rest.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
He is 22 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Al-Qadisiyah made Al-Shabab work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.70 on the card, and the Al-Shabab support went home talking about one name.
Squad5 Oct 2026
International break empties Al-Shabab
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
The dugout
Abdullah Matuq gets it from the manager
-
The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Dhari Al-Anazi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
74 days out for Roger Martínez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Shabab will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Marcelo Grohe 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Josh Brownhill, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Basil Al-Sayyali and Al-Shabab agree another 4 years.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and Al-Shabab 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Spartak Moscow had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Al-Taawoun, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market14 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Josh Brownhill to Adana Demirspor has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Al-Shabab with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Al-Shabab heard it as anything else.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tin Jedvaj, and the manager let it.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Bandar Al-Mutairi to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
95 days out for Roger Martínez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Shabab will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market7 Sep 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Shabab have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market7 Sep 2026
The name of Yacine Adli has come up in conversations Al-Shabab were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Al-Shabab close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 11 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Al-Khaleej wanted more than $1.9M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The award goes to Yannick Carrasco, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Yannick Carrasco is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market7 Sep 2026
Al-Taawoun are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Al-Shabab will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Najran, and it could have been more.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Najran waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Shabab is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Roger Martínez takes the afternoon — 8.44
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Roger Martínez provided it, and the 8.44 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.44, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Mojzel had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market24 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done: Ahmed Bamasud joins from Al-Fayha in a deal worth $760.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Al-Shabab
Marcelo Grohe 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.08, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Al-Shabab — 7.72
1 for Josh Brownhill, marked 7.72, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Marcelo Grohe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$52.0K was the most the club would pay and Al-Ahli were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Al-Faisaly, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Mory Diaw 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Najran have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mohammed Al-Shwirekh. The answer from Al-Shabab has not changed — yet.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.30, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Najran had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market10 Aug 2026
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market10 Aug 2026
Yannick Carrasco wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Al-Shabab hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $55.6K — a club that wants Abdullah Otayf enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Marcelo Grohe 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 targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Al-Shabab go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Al-Shabab have gone to Al-Ahli with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nasser Al-Nemer 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.