From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.11 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 19 in, 1 out at Al-Batin
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Match5 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Al-Batin
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Al-Batin are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 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-Batin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Batin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Falette 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ittihad have kept their man, and Al-Batin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Hamed Al-Shanqeeti is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Match5 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Al-Njoom leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑5 to Al-Riyadh, 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.
Market31 Aug 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 The request is on a desk at Al-Batin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Al-Batin had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Ittihad, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Al-Batin
Simon Falette and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Mojzel have kept their man, and Al-Batin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Turki Al-Jalfan 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 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Mxolisi Mthiya
“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.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.20, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match22 Aug 2026
Al-Diriyah left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Batin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Falette 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Khaled Al-Khathlan 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohammed Al-Sahli, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nasser Al-Salem after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Abdoulay Diaby yet — 8.24
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Al-Ittihad, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Simon Falette 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Hazem have kept their man, and Al-Batin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout17 Aug 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A point taken on 96 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad17 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Al-Batin 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Kamohelo Pheeane arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Kamohelo Pheeane has, at Al-Batin, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Ettifaq is saying, and nobody at Al-Batin is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Al-Batin
Simon Falette and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thabiso Msane and Al-Batin agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yasser Al-Otaibi 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sultan 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mohammed Al-Shammari 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rashid Al-Harbi 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
A row about effort at Al-Batin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Turki Al-Jalfan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Youssouf M'Changama and Al-Batin agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 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-Batin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Simon Falette 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Al-Batin know which stage they are at.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Batin, another week without a signature from Youssouf M'Changama.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Al-Batin have made the call to Al-Ettifaq. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Al-Batin have made the call to Al-Ettifaq. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months and counting on Yousef Fawaz
Still no offer on the table, and Yousef Fawaz’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Al-Batin has been clear about where Tariq Al-Mutairi stands, which is more than many ever get.