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.
5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Salman Al-Ahmadi, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 9.35
A mark of 9.35 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohammed Al-Subaie provided it, and the 8.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Mojzel and Al-Orobah in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talal Al-Shubili 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.
Bandar Al-Dawsari 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.
Al-Orobah next, and one man in the Al-Mojzel dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Mojzel, another week without a signature from Abdulla Al-Marzooqi.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Mojzel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Mojzel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sultan Al-Shehri scored, was marked 7.70, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talal Al-Shubili 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.
Bandar Al-Dawsari 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Talal Al-Shubili 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.
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.
Waleed Al-Hassan 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Al-Njoom tried to reorganise, Al-Mojzel did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Yasser Al-Khaibari kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Waleed Al-Hassan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talal Al-Shubili 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.
A point taken on 88 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.
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Yasser Al-Khaibari was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Al-Mojzel dressing room was either.
“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-Mojzel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Talal Al-Subaie will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Mojzel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Talal Al-Shubili 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 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.
Al-Riyadh next, and one man in the Al-Mojzel dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talal Al-Shubili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. Al-Diriyah had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Yasser Al-Khaibari after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutMnqobi Mzize knocks on the manager’s door
The mood at Al-Mojzel 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.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matala Makhubo 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.
He is 21 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thamer Al-Zahrani and Al-Mojzel agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Yasser Al-Khaibari after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Ahli keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talal Al-Subaie was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Youssef Al-Dosari 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luca Ramirez. 2‑0 against Ohod, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Yasser Al-Khaibari could afford to be generous.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Mojzel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Mojzel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Mojzel and Al-Taawoun, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
Youssef Al-Dosari 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.
“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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
Waleed Al-Hassan 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talal Al-Shubili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Waleed Al-Hassan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Al-Mojzel opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Talal Al-Subaie stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Al-Mojzel the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
The mood at Al-Mojzel 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.
“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-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Mojzel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have shaken hands with Al-Ahli; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 22 gone
That is the business done at Al-Mojzel 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.
Waleed Al-Hassan 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 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Mojzel have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Mojzel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Al-Mojzel had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Ahli, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
7 goals in one match, Luca Ramirez on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Al-Mojzel and Al-Wehda.
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talal Al-Shubili 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.
Al-Mojzel 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.
Talal Al-Shubili 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.
11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
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.
He is 21 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.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Bandar Al-Enezi clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Jeel had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Sami Al-Otaibi recited it perfectly.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Al-Mojzel
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.
Al-Mojzel asked and Al-Fayha said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 mood at Al-Mojzel 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Bandar Al-Enezi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
“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-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohammed Al-Subaie and Al-Mojzel agree another 3 years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Damac have kept their man, and Al-Mojzel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talal Al-Shubili 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.
Al-Mojzel asked and Najran said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talal Al-Shubili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Youssef Al-Dosari 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.
7 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.
Al-Mojzel have made the call to Al-Riyadh. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bandar Al-Dawsari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mohammed Al-Subaie may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Al-Mojzel asked and Al-Fayha said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Nobody at Al-Mojzel 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Position 14 and 28 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Turki Al-Dawsari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Mojzel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Waleed Al-Hassan 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.
“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-Mojzel know it.
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.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Mojzel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mohammed Al-Subaie had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sami Al-Nemer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Mojzel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Ahli is saying, and nobody at Al-Mojzel is enjoying the guessing.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Al-Nassr this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Talal Al-Shubili 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Al-Mojzel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadWords at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
$240.0K on the table at Al-Fateh. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Al-Nahda paid $11.0K and Al-Mojzel took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
$1.1M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.
He is going to Al-Fateh, the club has $1.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The deal with Al-Shoulla 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.
The chase for Salman Al-Jadany ended with $51.0K changing hands and Al-Njoom out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Mojzel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Mojzel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Waleed Al-Hassan 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.
Al-Mojzel asked and Al-Ra'ed said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Mojzel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Mojzel can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Youssef Al-Dosari again, and this time the name on the line is Damac. Al-Mojzel are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Wehda have kept their man, and Al-Mojzel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talal Al-Subaie was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Mojzel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al-Mojzel are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Mojzel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdullah Al-Bishi is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Al-Mojzel were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
In brief
The dugoutMnqobi Mzize knocks on the manager's door
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Mojzel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Al-Rashidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Mojzel can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
Sattam Al-Lehiyani 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 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Mohammed Al-Zaid's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Sattam Al-Lehiyani 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talal Al-Subaie was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Mohammed Al-Zaid was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Mojzel, another week without a signature from Rabie Hawsawi.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mohammed Al-Subaie may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Al-Mojzel says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Al-Rashidi 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.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Mojzel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
This is not rotation. Youssef Al-Dosari has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Al-Mojzel is pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talal Al-Subaie 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
6 new faces, and Al-Mojzel 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.
In brief
The dugoutReinaldo Dutra asks for a word with the manager
Sattam Al-Lehiyani 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 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.
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 Salman Al-Ahmadi is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Al-Mojzel says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Mojzel can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 28 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Sattam Al-Lehiyani 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Al-Rashidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sattam Al-Lehiyani 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.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Al-Rashidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Ahmed Al-Rashidi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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-Mojzel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sami Al-Nemer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Mojzel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Sami Al-Nemer has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Sattam Al-Lehiyani 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Thamer Al-Zahrani has, at Al-Mojzel, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“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-Mojzel know it.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Siya Msomi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Al-Mojzel have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Reinaldo Dutra will call it something else in private.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Mojzel can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Sattam Al-Lehiyani 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.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Al-Rashidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 14 and 25 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.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talal Al-Subaie was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Salman Al-Ahmadi, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Al-Riyadh will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Thamer Al-Dhafeeri has pre-agreed a move to Al-Mojzel, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Al-Mojzel asked and Al-Ittihad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The deal that would have taken Talal Al-Subaie to Al-Batin has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Al-Mojzel with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Sattam Al-Lehiyani 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yasser Al-Moosa has, at Al-Mojzel, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Luca Ramirez has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Al-Mojzel have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Al-Mojzel asked and Al-Ta'ee said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Al-Rashidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Bandar Al-Enezi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
Marked 7.63 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Al-Mojzel 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.
The phone has started ringing about Talal Al-Subaie again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Batin. Al-Mojzel are listening politely and promising nothing.
Mohammed Al-Subaie 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.
“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-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Al-Mojzel asked and Ohod said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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 mood at Al-Mojzel 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.
“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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
He is going to Al-Ettifaq, the club has $700.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The phone has started ringing about Sami Al-Ghamdi again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Saudi Al-Watani. Al-Mojzel are listening politely and promising nothing.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Riyadh have kept their man, and Al-Mojzel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Mojzel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Al-Ettifaq for Saad Al-Sulami 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.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi has gone, the accounts have $200.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Al-Njoom have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Talal Al-Subaie. The answer from Al-Mojzel has not changed — yet.
Saad Al-Sulami 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.
Al-Ettifaq paid $200.0K and Al-Mojzel took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Orobah have kept their man, and Al-Mojzel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Nahda waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Mojzel is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Al-Saudi Al-Watani for Sami Al-Ghamdi 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.
Saad Al-Sulami 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.
“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-Mojzel know it.
Al-Mojzel asked and Najran said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 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.
“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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Youssef Al-Dosari has come up in conversations Al-Mojzel were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
“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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Salman Al-Ahmadi, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.74
A mark of 7.74 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohammed Al-Zaid 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talal Al-Subaie was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Saad Al-Sulami provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 7.84 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hassan Al-Harbi 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 dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ibrahim Al-Enezi'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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulaziz Al-Awardi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Mojzel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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.
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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 Al-Mojzel now know that too.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hassan Al-Harbi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Half the programme played, position 15, 10 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talal Al-Subaie was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Reinaldo Dutra is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bandar Al-Enezi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hassan Al-Harbi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Mojzel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A 1‑0 win over Al-Batin, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talal Al-Subaie 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Bandar Al-Enezi, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutReinaldo Dutra asks for a word with the manager
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Mojzel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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 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.
“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-Mojzel know it.
“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-Mojzel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Mojzel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Mojzel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“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-Mojzel know it.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Mojzel can tell you which week it ends in.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Bandar Al-Enezi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutMnqobi Mzize knocks on the manager's door
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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.
“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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talal Al-Subaie 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bandar Al-Enezi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ibrahim Al-Enezi'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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
5 new faces, and Al-Mojzel 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Mojzel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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 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.
Boardroom18 Oct 2027
Nobody left the Al-Mojzel dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Al-Riyadh.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Reinaldo Dutra trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Al-Mojzel are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mohammed Al-Zaid’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Al-Mojzel needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He is 23 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.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
“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-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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.
Saad Al-Sulami scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Al-Orobah, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hassan Al-Harbi 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.
“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 dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Bandar Al-Enezi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
5 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Mojzel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Mojzel has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces20 Sep 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 28 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.33 beside his name.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Mojzel and Al-Khaleej in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Al-Mojzel ran out of time with Al-Wehda. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al-Jeel had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Al-Wehda have accepted the money. What Al-Mojzel do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 15 gone
That is the business done at Al-Mojzel 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Fayha keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Mojzel can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hassan Al-Harbi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 8.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from Al-Jeel for Sami Al-Ghamdi 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.
Al-Mojzel had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Wehda, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Mojzel have done the hard part with Al-Ra'ed, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Reinaldo Dutra
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Mojzel have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Fateh is saying, and nobody at Al-Mojzel is enjoying the guessing.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajer have kept their man, and Al-Mojzel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ibrahim 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ibrahim Al-Sulami 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 offer went to Al-Nassr this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“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-Mojzel know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talal Al-Subaie was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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-Mojzel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Bandar Al-Enezi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The offer from Al-Fayha for Saeed Al-Zahrani 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.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Daniels 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Al-Mojzel will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Abdulmajeed Al-Khathami was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Mojzel is running low.
“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-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Fateh have kept their man, and Al-Mojzel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raymond Daniels was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al-Mojzel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
6 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saad Al-Sulami signs something — a contract at Al-Mojzel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Mojzel people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Saudi Al-Watani keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The deal with Al-Ra'ed 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.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajer have kept their man, and Al-Mojzel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al-Njoom will make the call about Waleed Al-Hassan this week. Al-Mojzel have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Mojzel can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“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-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Al-Saudi Al-Watani for Sami Al-Ghamdi 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.
The offer went to Al-Saudi Al-Watani this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces12 Jul 2027
Al-Mojzel spend $200.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $200.0K for Abdulmajeed Al-Khathami, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Al-Mojzel asked and Al-Nassr said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Mojzel have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Daniels 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.
Al-Ettifaq arrived with $830.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Mojzel can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Mohammed Al-Ghamdi has gone, the accounts have $830.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The phone has started ringing about Sami Al-Ghamdi again, and this time the name on the line is Al-Saudi Al-Watani. Al-Mojzel are listening politely and promising nothing.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raymond Daniels was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Al-Mojzel have made the call to Al-Nassr. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Fayha waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Mojzel is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Mojzel is running low.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Al-Mojzel is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The deal with Al-Nassr 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.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saad Al-Sulami trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
“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-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Al-Saudi Al-Watani for Mohammed Al-Ghamdi 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdullah Al-Dossari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al-Mojzel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Mojzel is running low.
“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-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
24 games and 10 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Daniels 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.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and Al-Mojzel are still learning each other
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Saad Al-Sulami 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Ghamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Ilyan Quattrucci is 18, and Al-Mojzel have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Mojzel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Mojzel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Saad Al-Sulami 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yannick Caupers is living that version at Al-Mojzel, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Ghamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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-Mojzel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Yannick Caupers arrives at Al-Mojzel with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Mojzel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
10 goals in 24 games at Al-Jeel — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Mojzel updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saad Al-Sulami trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Mojzel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Mojzel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Mojzel is running low.
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.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saad Al-Sulami trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Mojzel may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Al-Ghamdi 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.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdullah Al-Dossari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The terraces26 Apr 2027
Supporters make their feelings known about Saad Al-Sulami
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Al-Mojzel would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
Saad Al-Sulami 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 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 list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mohammed Al-Ghamdi may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“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-Mojzel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Mojzel. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Position 9 on 34 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Salman Al-Ahmadi did not need any: 7.63, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al-Mojzel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Al-Ghamdi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Salman Al-Ahmadi 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Salman Al-Ahmadi. 1‑0 against Al-Shoulla, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Mohamed Khalaf and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Daniels 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Mojzel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
A side in position 14 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Mohammed Al-Ghamdi plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Ghamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Bandar Al-Enezi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Al-Ghamdi 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.
Ibrahim Al-Enezi 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Mojzel, another week without a signature from Mohamed Khalaf.
10 goals in 22 games at Al-Jeel — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Al-Mojzel updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Mojzel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Mohamed Khalaf 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Daniels 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.
Marked 7.30. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
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-Enezi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Al-Batin? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdullah Al-Dossari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Mohamed Khalaf and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Al-Ghamdi 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Abdulaziz Al-Awardi knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bandar Al-Enezi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutMohamed Khalaf asks for a word with the manager
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Salman Al-Ahmadi did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohammed Al-Subaie. 3‑1 against Al-Njoom, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Ghamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Mohamed Khalaf 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 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 words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑3 against Al-Diriyah, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Mojzel can tell you which week it ends in.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Ra'ed is saying, and nobody at Al-Mojzel is enjoying the guessing.
Mohamed Khalaf 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Ghamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
“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-Mojzel, and it is not being withdrawn.
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Al-Mojzel are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Al-Mojzel 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.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Al-Mojzel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohammed Al-Ghamdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 to Al-Hazem, 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.
“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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
Al-Mojzel have gone to Al-Riyadh 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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-Mojzel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Al-Mojzel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Daniels 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 words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Al-Mojzel and Al-Ra'ed have settled on $120.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Mohamed Khalaf 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.
Al-Mojzel offered $27.0K; Al-Riyadh said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
80 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Mojzel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Al-Mojzel have gone to Al-Riyadh 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.
Mohamed Khalaf 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 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“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 dugout11 Jan 2027
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-Enezi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohamed Khalaf trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Mojzel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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-Mojzel can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Mojzel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Khaled Al-Rammah, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.67
A mark of 7.67 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.