From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom17 May 2032
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Njoom
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market17 May 2032
“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 May 2032
Nadeo Argawinata 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 dugout17 May 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad17 May 2032
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed 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.
The dugout17 May 2032
Ali Al-Mansour asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market17 May 2032
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mubarak Al-Shayie signs something — a contract at Al-Njoom or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market17 May 2032
Al-Njoom have let the market know Naser Al-Ghamdi can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Boardroom17 May 2032
The Al-Njoom academy earns its keep
77 graduates, from a department now rated 4 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces10 May 2032
Supporters organise against the Al-Njoom board
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.
Market10 May 2032
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market10 May 2032
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout10 May 2032
Yasser Al-Sulami: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Njoom have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom10 May 2032
Al-Njoom counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Al-Njoom now.
Squad10 May 2032
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadeo Argawinata 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.
Squad10 May 2032
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout10 May 2032
“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-Njoom, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market10 May 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ukeme Williams’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 May 2032
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market3 May 2032
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom3 May 2032
Emergency meeting at Al-Njoom
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.
The dugout3 May 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad3 May 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ukeme Williams commits to Al-Njoom for another 2 years.
Squad3 May 2032
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadeo Argawinata 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.
Squad3 May 2032
Ahmed Al-Ghamdi 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.
Boardroom3 May 2032
105% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Njoom
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.
The dugout3 May 2032
Ukeme Williams without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Ukeme Williams was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Apr 2032
Al-Njoom sink to position 16
2 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market26 Apr 2032
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Apr 2032
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Ahmed Al-Ghamdi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
Nadeo Argawinata asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market26 Apr 2032
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Shon Natcho may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom19 Apr 2032
Pressure builds in the Al-Njoom boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market19 Apr 2032
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Njoom may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Apr 2032
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad19 Apr 2032
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
Shon Natcho asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market19 Apr 2032
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mubarak Al-Shayie signs something — a contract at Al-Njoom or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market19 Apr 2032
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Diyorbek Mamadaliyev may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces12 Apr 2032
Supporters organise against the Al-Njoom board
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.
Market12 Apr 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market12 Apr 2032
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
Omer Natcho: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Njoom have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom12 Apr 2032
Al-Njoom counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Al-Njoom now.
Squad12 Apr 2032
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad12 Apr 2032
A falling-out at Al-Njoom
Faisal Al-Qahtani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
The manager makes an example of Khalid Al-Nemer
“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.
Market12 Apr 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ukeme Williams’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Apr 2032
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Apr 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom5 Apr 2032
Crisis meeting at Al-Njoom
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The dugout5 Apr 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad5 Apr 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdullah Al-Enezi and Al-Njoom agree another 4 years.
Squad5 Apr 2032
Ahmed Al-Ghamdi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom5 Apr 2032
111% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Njoom
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.
Squad5 Apr 2032
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout5 Apr 2032
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Mohammed Al-Nukhylan is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Mar 2032
Every point is an argument now for Al-Njoom
Position 16 and 2 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.
Market29 Mar 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad29 Mar 2032
Words exchanged at Al-Njoom
Mubarak Al-Shayie 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.
Squad29 Mar 2032
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadeo Argawinata 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 dugout29 Mar 2032
Ali Al-Mansour knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ali Al-Mansour trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad29 Mar 2032
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom22 Mar 2032
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Njoom
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market22 Mar 2032
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout22 Mar 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad22 Mar 2032
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadeo Argawinata 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.
Squad22 Mar 2032
A falling-out at Al-Njoom
Ahmed Al-Ghamdi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout22 Mar 2032
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Naser Al-Ghamdi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces15 Mar 2032
Anger at Al-Njoom spills outside the ground
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.
Market15 Mar 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nadeo Argawinata will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market15 Mar 2032
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Mar 2032
A falling-out at Al-Njoom
Nadeo Argawinata and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom15 Mar 2032
Al-Njoom counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Al-Njoom now.
Squad15 Mar 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Njoom can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Ahmed Al-Ghamdi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Too much change too quickly at Al-Njoom
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.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nadeo Argawinata trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Mar 2032
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
62 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
Match6 Mar 2032
Beaten 0‑4 by Al-Diriyah, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Boardroom8 Mar 2032
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.
Match8 Mar 2032
Al-Njoom finish in position 16
2 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Boardroom8 Mar 2032
Crisis meeting at Al-Njoom
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market8 Mar 2032
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout8 Mar 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad8 Mar 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Al-Njoom can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad8 Mar 2032
A falling-out at Al-Njoom
Diyorbek Mamadaliyev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
In brief
-
Squad
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
-
Match
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
-
Boardroom
Wages eat 123% of everything Al-Njoom earn
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Feb 2032
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
61 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.
Match1 Mar 2032
Every point is an argument now for Al-Njoom
Position 16 and 2 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.
Market1 Mar 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad1 Mar 2032
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad1 Mar 2032
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match28 Feb 2032
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market1 Mar 2032
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ahmed Al-Enezi 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Feb 2032
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
60 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom23 Feb 2032
Pressure builds in the Al-Njoom boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match21 Feb 2032
Beaten 1‑5 by Al-Hazem, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market23 Feb 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad23 Feb 2032
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout23 Feb 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad23 Feb 2032
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed 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.
Boardroom23 Feb 2032
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Feb 2032
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
59 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 terraces16 Feb 2032
The mood at Al-Njoom 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.
Match14 Feb 2032
0‑3 to Al-Fayha, 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.
Market16 Feb 2032
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match14 Feb 2032
The goals have deserted Al-Njoom
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Njoom can tell you which week it ends in.
Boardroom16 Feb 2032
The numbers do not look good at Al-Njoom
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Transfer targets16 Feb 2032
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.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadeo Argawinata 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 dugout16 Feb 2032
The manager makes an example of Naser Al-Ghamdi
“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.
In brief
-
Boardroom
Nobody left the Al-Njoom dressing room in a hurry
-
The dugout
Interim Coach answers for it
-
Squad
Too much change too quickly at Al-Njoom
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Feb 2032
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
58 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Njoom may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market9 Feb 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad9 Feb 2032
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.
Match7 Feb 2032
The goals have deserted Al-Njoom
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Njoom can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad9 Feb 2032
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets9 Feb 2032
Al-Njoom 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.
Squad9 Feb 2032
A row about effort at Al-Njoom
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nadeo Argawinata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Jan 2032
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
57 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
Match2 Feb 2032
Al-Njoom sink to position 16
1 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
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.
Market2 Feb 2032
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
The Al-Njoom board call everybody in
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.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
Window shuts: 6 in, 8 out at Al-Njoom
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 6 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets2 Feb 2032
The deal with Al-Ittihad 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.
Match31 Jan 2032
Al-Njoom cannot find the net
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.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Nadeo Argawinata 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Jan 2032
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
56 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom26 Jan 2032
Pressure builds in the Al-Njoom boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match24 Jan 2032
Al-Njoom leaking at the back
11 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match24 Jan 2032
0‑3 to Al-Jeel, 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.
Squad26 Jan 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Transfer targets26 Jan 2032
The deal with Hajer 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.
Squad26 Jan 2032
A falling-out at Al-Njoom
Meshal Mahmoud Haddad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom26 Jan 2032
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Battal Al-Harthi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Al-Njoom have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Match24 Jan 2032
Al-Njoom cannot find the net
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Jan 2032
55 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 55, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
The terraces19 Jan 2032
Anger at Al-Njoom spills outside the ground
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.
Match17 Jan 2032
Nowhere to hide for Al-Njoom
0‑4 against Al-Ettifaq, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad19 Jan 2032
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match17 Jan 2032
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
10 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Market19 Jan 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets19 Jan 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Al-Shoulla; Al-Njoom go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Transfer targets19 Jan 2032
The paperwork begins on Omer Korsia
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Njoom have done the hard part with Al-Khaleej, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad19 Jan 2032
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Jan 2032
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
54 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
Match10 Jan 2032
Beaten 0‑6 by Al-Shoulla, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market12 Jan 2032
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jan 2032
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.
Match10 Jan 2032
Al-Njoom are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 9 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The dugout12 Jan 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Transfer targets12 Jan 2032
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Njoom have done the hard part with Al-Shoulla, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets12 Jan 2032
Al-Njoom had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Ettifaq, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The dugout12 Jan 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Jan 2032
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
53 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.
Squad5 Jan 2032
There were 12 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match5 Jan 2032
Al-Njoom are in real trouble now
Position 16, 0 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match3 Jan 2032
Beaten 1‑4 by Ohod, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Njoom can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market5 Jan 2032
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Match3 Jan 2032
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
8 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Transfer targets5 Jan 2032
Everything agreed with Al-Ettifaq, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets5 Jan 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajer have kept their man, and Al-Njoom go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Dec 2031
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
52 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.
Squad29 Dec 2031
A fracture rules Talal Al-Dawsari out for 16 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom29 Dec 2031
The scrutiny sharpens at Al-Njoom
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Njoom is running low.
Match27 Dec 2031
Beaten 0‑3 by Al-Orobah, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match27 Dec 2031
The goals have deserted Al-Njoom
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Njoom can tell you which week it ends in.
Match27 Dec 2031
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
7 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Market29 Dec 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Dec 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Talal Al-Dawsari and Al-Njoom agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad29 Dec 2031
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
-
The dugout
Nadeo Argawinata gets it from the manager
-
Boardroom
Wages eat 119% of everything Al-Njoom earn
-
Boardroom
Nobody left the Al-Njoom dressing room in a hurry
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Dec 2031
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
51 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 terraces22 Dec 2031
Supporters organise against the Al-Njoom board
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.
Squad22 Dec 2031
A fracture rules Talal Al-Dawsari out for 23 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match20 Dec 2031
0‑5 to Al-Batin, 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.
Market22 Dec 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market22 Dec 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Dec 2031
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match20 Dec 2031
Al-Njoom cannot find the net
5 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.
Match20 Dec 2031
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
6 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Dec 2031
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
50 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad15 Dec 2031
30 days out for Talal Al-Dawsari after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Njoom will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match13 Dec 2031
Nowhere to hide for Al-Njoom
0‑4 against Damac, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad15 Dec 2031
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market15 Dec 2031
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout15 Dec 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match13 Dec 2031
4 matches without a goal for Al-Njoom
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match13 Dec 2031
Al-Njoom are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad15 Dec 2031
Meshal Mahmoud Haddad 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.
In brief
-
Boardroom
The numbers do not look good at Al-Njoom
-
Squad
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
-
Boardroom
Nobody left the Al-Njoom dressing room in a hurry
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Dec 2031
49 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 49, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match8 Dec 2031
Al-Njoom are in real trouble now
Position 16, 0 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match6 Dec 2031
Chastening afternoon for Al-Njoom
A 0‑5 beating by Al-Ta'ee was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Boardroom8 Dec 2031
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Njoom can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market8 Dec 2031
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Dec 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Dec 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mohammed Al-Nukhylan commits to Al-Njoom for another 3 years.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Words exchanged at Al-Njoom
Meshal Mahmoud Haddad 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Nov 2031
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
48 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.
Boardroom1 Dec 2031
Pressure builds in the Al-Njoom boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match29 Nov 2031
Chastening afternoon for Al-Njoom
A 0‑3 beating by Al-Riyadh was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad1 Dec 2031
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market1 Dec 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 Dec 2031
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
“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.
Boardroom1 Dec 2031
Nobody left the Al-Njoom 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.
Boardroom1 Dec 2031
Wages eat 102% of everything Al-Njoom earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Nov 2031
47 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 47, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
The terraces24 Nov 2031
Anger at Al-Njoom spills outside the ground
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.
Market24 Nov 2031
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Nov 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Rakasurya Handika 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.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match22 Nov 2031
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match24 Nov 2031
The half-term report on Al-Njoom
Position 16, 0 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Nov 2031
46 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 46, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Market17 Nov 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match15 Nov 2031
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Njoom and Al-Nahda, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match15 Nov 2031
2‑4 to Al-Nahda, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom17 Nov 2031
Belts tighten at Al-Njoom
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadeo Argawinata 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 dugout17 Nov 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Nov 2031
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
45 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
Match10 Nov 2031
Al-Njoom are in real trouble now
Position 16, 0 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match8 Nov 2031
8 matches without a goal for Al-Njoom
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 8 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Market10 Nov 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match8 Nov 2031
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout10 Nov 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout10 Nov 2031
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad10 Nov 2031
A row about effort at Al-Njoom
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ulugbek Fayzullaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Nov 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Saeed Al-Nemer, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Nov 2031
44 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 44, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Match1 Nov 2031
Al-Njoom cannot find the net
7 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.
Boardroom3 Nov 2031
The scrutiny sharpens at Al-Njoom
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Njoom is running low.
Market3 Nov 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ulugbek Fayzullaev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Words exchanged at Al-Njoom
Mubarak Al-Shayie 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.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadeo Argawinata 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.
Match1 Nov 2031
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 Nov 2031
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout3 Nov 2031
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Oct 2031
43 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 43, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
The terraces27 Oct 2031
Anger at Al-Njoom spills outside the ground
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.
Market27 Oct 2031
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market27 Oct 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match25 Oct 2031
Al-Njoom cannot find the net
6 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.
Squad27 Oct 2031
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Oct 2031
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match25 Oct 2031
Al-Saudi Al-Watani left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout27 Oct 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Oct 2031
42 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 42, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Squad20 Oct 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match18 Oct 2031
The goals have deserted Al-Njoom
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Njoom can tell you which week it ends in.
Player ratings20 Oct 2031
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout20 Oct 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad20 Oct 2031
Words exchanged at Al-Njoom
Nadeo Argawinata 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.
Boardroom20 Oct 2031
Belts tighten at Al-Njoom
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Match18 Oct 2031
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout20 Oct 2031
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Oct 2031
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
41 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.
Match11 Oct 2031
Nowhere to hide for Al-Njoom
0‑4 against Al-Jeel, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad13 Oct 2031
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.
Match13 Oct 2031
Every point is an argument now for Al-Njoom
Position 16 and 0 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.
Market13 Oct 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match11 Oct 2031
The goals have deserted Al-Njoom
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Njoom can tell you which week it ends in.
Match11 Oct 2031
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Words exchanged at Al-Njoom
Meshal Mahmoud Haddad 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.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Oct 2031
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
40 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.
Match4 Oct 2031
0‑5 to Al-Ettifaq, 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.
Market6 Oct 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ulugbek Fayzullaev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Oct 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ukeme Williams commits to Al-Njoom for another 2 years.
Squad6 Oct 2031
A falling-out at Al-Njoom
Meshal Mahmoud Haddad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match4 Oct 2031
Al-Njoom cannot find the net
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.
Squad6 Oct 2031
A row about effort at Al-Njoom
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nadeo Argawinata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match4 Oct 2031
Al-Njoom are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Boardroom6 Oct 2031
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Sep 2031
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
39 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces29 Sep 2031
Supporters organise against the Al-Njoom board
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.
Match27 Sep 2031
Chastening afternoon for Al-Njoom
A 0‑5 beating by Al-Shoulla was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market29 Sep 2031
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Market29 Sep 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nadeo Argawinata will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Sep 2031
A falling-out at Al-Njoom
Nadeo Argawinata and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulugbek Fayzullaev 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.
Player ratings29 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom29 Sep 2031
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Sep 2031
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
38 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.
Match20 Sep 2031
Chastening afternoon for Al-Njoom
A 0‑4 beating by Ohod was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market22 Sep 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Sep 2031
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 dugout22 Sep 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Boardroom22 Sep 2031
The numbers do not look good at Al-Njoom
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad22 Sep 2031
A row about effort at Al-Njoom
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nadeo Argawinata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
“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.
Boardroom22 Sep 2031
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 Sep 2031
37 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 37, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Match10 Sep 2031
Al-Njoom bow out of the cup
Al-Ahli go through and Al-Njoom go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad15 Sep 2031
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Market15 Sep 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Faisal Al-Enezi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Sep 2031
A falling-out at Al-Njoom
Mubarak Al-Shayie and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets15 Sep 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Al-Njoom go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadeo Argawinata 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 terraces15 Sep 2031
At 19 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Sep 2031
35 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 35, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Match6 Sep 2031
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
31 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market8 Sep 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market8 Sep 2031
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom8 Sep 2031
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ulugbek Fayzullaev 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.
Squad8 Sep 2031
A falling-out at Al-Njoom
Meshal Mahmoud Haddad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match6 Sep 2031
1‑3 to Al-Batin, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Transfer targets8 Sep 2031
Al-Njoom asked and Al-Shabab said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Aug 2031
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
34 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
Match30 Aug 2031
Al-Njoom leaking at the back
30 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
The terraces1 Sep 2031
The mood at Al-Njoom 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.
Match30 Aug 2031
1‑4 to Damac, 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.
Market1 Sep 2031
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Sep 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nadeo Argawinata will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings1 Sep 2031
No sign of nerves from Talal Al-Dawsari at 17 — 7.72
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Talal Al-Dawsari did not need any: 7.72, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
Window shuts: 10 in, 13 out at Al-Njoom
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 13 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets1 Sep 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Njoom have done the hard part with Al-Orobah, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Aug 2031
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
33 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.
Match23 Aug 2031
Al-Njoom leaking at the back
29 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 14 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match23 Aug 2031
The goals have deserted Al-Njoom
11 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Njoom can tell you which week it ends in.
Match23 Aug 2031
0‑3 to Al-Ta'ee, 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.
Market25 Aug 2031
Ukeme Williams has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2031
The deal with Al-Qadisiyah 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 dugout25 Aug 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad25 Aug 2031
Meshal Mahmoud Haddad 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Aug 2031
32 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 32, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Match16 Aug 2031
Al-Njoom leaking at the back
28 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match16 Aug 2031
The goals have deserted Al-Njoom
10 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Njoom can tell you which week it ends in.
Match16 Aug 2031
Chastening afternoon for Al-Njoom
A 0‑6 beating by Al-Riyadh was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad18 Aug 2031
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market18 Aug 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Nadeo Argawinata 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.
Match16 Aug 2031
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Njoom and Al-Riyadh, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Transfer targets18 Aug 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom11 Aug 2031
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Nadeo Argawinata 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.
Market11 Aug 2031
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Boardroom11 Aug 2031
5 academy graduates step up at Al-Njoom
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2031
Al-Njoom asked and Al-Shabab said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad11 Aug 2031
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market11 Aug 2031
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Faisal Al-Sheikh 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.
Market11 Aug 2031
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ahmed Al-Mutairi 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.
Market11 Aug 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Khalid Al-Harbi 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 Aug 2031
Supporters organise against the Al-Njoom board
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.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Njoom can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
Emergency meeting at Al-Njoom
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.
Market4 Aug 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets4 Aug 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Njoom have done the hard part with Al-Ettifaq, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets4 Aug 2031
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Hazem keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad4 Aug 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Talal Al-Dawsari commits to Al-Njoom for another 3 years.
Transfer targets4 Aug 2031
Al-Njoom 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.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadeo Argawinata 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Jul 2031
Ukeme Williams has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market28 Jul 2031
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout28 Jul 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad28 Jul 2031
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom28 Jul 2031
Al-Njoom counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Al-Njoom now.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
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 Jul 2031
Ulugbek Fayzullaev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
Damac have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
Al-Hilal have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Jul 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Words exchanged at Al-Njoom
Meshal Mahmoud Haddad 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.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Faisaly have kept their man, and Al-Njoom go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout21 Jul 2031
“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.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
A loan move for Ahmed Khatir is in the works
Al-Njoom have made the call to Najran. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout21 Jul 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Faisal Al-Shehri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market21 Jul 2031
6 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Al-Njoom could get for him.
Squad21 Jul 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom14 Jul 2031
The scrutiny sharpens at Al-Njoom
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Njoom is running low.
Match14 Jul 2031
Al-Njoom are in real trouble now
Position 16, 1 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad14 Jul 2031
A falling-out at Al-Njoom
Meshal Mahmoud Haddad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajer have kept their man, and Al-Njoom go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jul 2031
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad14 Jul 2031
The medical room confirms 27 days on the sidelines for Mohammed Al-Rashid, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
Al-Taawoun have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
Al-Faisaly have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market14 Jul 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mubarak Al-Shayie’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces7 Jul 2031
The mood at Al-Njoom 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.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
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.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
Emergency meeting at Al-Njoom
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.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Hazem is saying, and nobody at Al-Njoom is enjoying the guessing.
Squad7 Jul 2031
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
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.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulugbek Fayzullaev 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.
Market7 Jul 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad7 Jul 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Faisal Al-Qahtani and Al-Njoom agree another 3 years.
In brief
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Ahmed Omar is in the works
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Boardroom
4 new boys at the Al-Njoom academy
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The dugout
Faisal Al-Shehri is still being punished for one mistake
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Jun 2031
Ukeme Williams has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout30 Jun 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad30 Jun 2031
Words exchanged at Al-Njoom
Meshal Mahmoud Haddad 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.
Boardroom30 Jun 2031
The numbers do not look good at Al-Njoom
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Diriyah have kept their man, and Al-Njoom go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadeo Argawinata is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
A loan move for Hamad Al-Rashid is in the works
Al-Njoom have made the call to Al-Faisaly. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Al-Ettifaq have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout30 Jun 2031
“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-Njoom, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Jun 2031
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Jun 2031
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Market23 Jun 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Faisal Al-Enezi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Words exchanged at Al-Njoom
Nadeo Argawinata 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.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
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.
Squad23 Jun 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bandar Al-Enezi and Al-Njoom agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom16 Jun 2031
Pressure builds in the Al-Njoom boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match16 Jun 2031
Every point is an argument now for Al-Njoom
Position 16 and 1 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.
Squad16 Jun 2031
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 21 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
Al-Njoom had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Damac, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
“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.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Ulugbek Fayzullaev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
A loan enquiry to Al-Faisaly: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
Al-Ra'ed have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market16 Jun 2031
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Al-Njoom know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces9 Jun 2031
The mood at Al-Njoom 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.
Market9 Jun 2031
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Market9 Jun 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Al-Saudi Al-Watani waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
Al-Njoom had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Hazem, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Words exchanged at Al-Njoom
Mubarak Al-Shayie 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.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Fateh have kept their man, and Al-Njoom go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadeo Argawinata 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.
Market9 Jun 2031
The name of Sami Al-Sulami has come up in conversations Al-Njoom were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Faisal Al-Shehri, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
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.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
Emergency meeting at Al-Njoom
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.
Market2 Jun 2031
Only the photograph left for Ukeme Williams
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ukeme Williams will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad2 Jun 2031
Words exchanged at Al-Njoom
Meshal Mahmoud Haddad 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.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
The numbers do not look good at Al-Njoom
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Transfer targets2 Jun 2031
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.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market2 Jun 2031
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Al-Njoom have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout26 May 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Njoom may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market26 May 2031
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 May 2031
Words exchanged at Al-Njoom
Nadeo Argawinata 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.
Squad26 May 2031
Ulugbek Fayzullaev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad26 May 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sami Al-Sulami and Al-Njoom agree another 4 years.
The dugout26 May 2031
Sami Al-Sulami knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sami Al-Sulami trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom19 May 2031
Pressure builds in the Al-Njoom boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match19 May 2031
Al-Njoom are in real trouble now
Position 16, 1 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad19 May 2031
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 May 2031
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout19 May 2031
“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.
Squad19 May 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Faisal Al-Shehri and Al-Njoom agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces12 May 2031
Anger at Al-Njoom spills outside the ground
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.
Market12 May 2031
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout12 May 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Njoom may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 May 2031
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Njoom can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market5 May 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout5 May 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad5 May 2031
Nadeo Argawinata 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.
Market5 May 2031
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Saad Al-Harbi has his answer from Al-Njoom; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Boardroom5 May 2031
Belts tighten at Al-Njoom
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout5 May 2031
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Yasser Al-Mansour was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The dugout5 May 2031
Faisal Al-Shehri is still being punished for one mistake
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.
Market5 May 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mubarak Al-Shayie signs something — a contract at Al-Njoom or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Apr 2031
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Apr 2031
A row about effort at Al-Njoom
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nadeo Argawinata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Apr 2031
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom21 Apr 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Njoom
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match21 Apr 2031
Al-Njoom are in real trouble now
Position 16, 1 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Mubarak Al-Shayie 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.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadeo Argawinata 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 dugout21 Apr 2031
The manager makes an example of Montassar Toumi
“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 dugout21 Apr 2031
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces14 Apr 2031
The mood at Al-Njoom 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.
Market14 Apr 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Njoom have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Apr 2031
A falling-out at Al-Njoom
Meshal Mahmoud Haddad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom14 Apr 2031
100% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Njoom
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.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Apr 2031
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.
Market7 Apr 2031
Only the photograph left for Ukeme Williams
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ukeme Williams will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad7 Apr 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Montassar Toumi and Al-Njoom agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Words exchanged at Al-Njoom
Meshal Mahmoud Haddad 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.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadeo Argawinata 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 dugout7 Apr 2031
“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.
Market7 Apr 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Boardroom7 Apr 2031
Al-Njoom counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Al-Njoom now.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Mar 2031
18 days out for Montassar Toumi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Njoom will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market31 Mar 2031
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Words exchanged at Al-Njoom
Nadeo Argawinata 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Mar 2031
A fracture rules Montassar Toumi out for 25 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom24 Mar 2031
Pressure builds in the Al-Njoom boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match24 Mar 2031
Al-Njoom are in real trouble now
Position 16, 1 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad24 Mar 2031
A falling-out at Al-Njoom
Nadeo Argawinata and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Mar 2031
“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-Njoom are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nadeo Argawinata trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Mar 2031
The mood at Al-Njoom 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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
32 days out for Montassar Toumi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Njoom will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market17 Mar 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Words exchanged at Al-Njoom
Rakasurya Handika 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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom17 Mar 2031
100% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Njoom
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.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
The manager makes an example of Bandar Al-Enezi
“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 dugout17 Mar 2031
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Al-Njoom. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad17 Mar 2031
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Al-Njoom will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Mar 2031
39 days out for Montassar Toumi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Njoom will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market10 Mar 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Njoom may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Nadeo Argawinata 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 dugout10 Mar 2031
“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.
Market10 Mar 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Boardroom10 Mar 2031
Al-Njoom counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Al-Njoom now.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Faisal Al-Shehri'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.
Market10 Mar 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mubarak Al-Shayie signs something — a contract at Al-Njoom or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Mar 2031
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
31 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.
Match1 Mar 2031
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
27 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Match1 Mar 2031
Nowhere to hide for Al-Njoom
0‑5 against Hajer, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Boardroom3 Mar 2031
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.
Match1 Mar 2031
The goals have deserted Al-Njoom
9 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Njoom can tell you which week it ends in.
Match3 Mar 2031
The season ends: position 16 for Al-Njoom
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 1 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market3 Mar 2031
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Mar 2031
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Feb 2031
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
30 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
Match22 Feb 2031
Al-Njoom leaking at the back
26 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad24 Feb 2031
12 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom24 Feb 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Njoom
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match24 Feb 2031
Every point is an argument now for Al-Njoom
Position 16 and 1 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.
Match22 Feb 2031
Chastening afternoon for Al-Njoom
A 0‑9 beating by Ohod was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match22 Feb 2031
8 matches without a goal for Al-Njoom
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 8 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Njoom may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match22 Feb 2031
Nobody could stop scoring
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Njoom and Ohod in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Feb 2031
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
29 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
Match15 Feb 2031
Al-Njoom are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 25 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The terraces17 Feb 2031
Anger at Al-Njoom spills outside the ground
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.
Match15 Feb 2031
Beaten 0‑3 by Al-Orobah, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match15 Feb 2031
Al-Njoom cannot find the net
7 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.
Squad17 Feb 2031
A falling-out at Al-Njoom
Meshal Mahmoud Haddad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Feb 2031
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.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Nadeo Argawinata falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Montassar Toumi, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Boardroom
Inquest at Al-Njoom
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Boardroom
94% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Njoom
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Feb 2031
28 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 28, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Match8 Feb 2031
Al-Njoom are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 24 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The dugout10 Feb 2031
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Njoom have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market10 Feb 2031
Only the photograph left for Ukeme Williams
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ukeme Williams will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match8 Feb 2031
Al-Njoom cannot find the net
6 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.
Transfer targets10 Feb 2031
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Wehda is saying, and nobody at Al-Njoom is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Nadeo Argawinata 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.
Squad10 Feb 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Saad Al-Harbi and Al-Njoom agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets10 Feb 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Feb 2031
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
27 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.
Match1 Feb 2031
Al-Njoom leaking at the back
23 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
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.
Market3 Feb 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Al-Njoom 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.
Match1 Feb 2031
5 matches without a goal for Al-Njoom
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets3 Feb 2031
The deal with Al-Batin 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.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Meshal Mahmoud Haddad 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.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Al-Njoom counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Al-Njoom now.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Jan 2031
26 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 26, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Match25 Jan 2031
Al-Njoom leaking at the back
22 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match27 Jan 2031
Every point is an argument now for Al-Njoom
Position 16 and 1 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.
Boardroom27 Jan 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Njoom
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match25 Jan 2031
Chastening afternoon for Al-Njoom
A 0‑3 beating by Al-Mojzel was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Transfer targets27 Jan 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Njoom have done the hard part with Al-Khaleej, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match25 Jan 2031
Al-Njoom cannot find the net
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.
Squad27 Jan 2031
A falling-out at Al-Njoom
Nadeo Argawinata and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets27 Jan 2031
Al-Njoom asked and Al-Taawoun said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Jan 2031
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
25 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.
Match18 Jan 2031
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
21 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 14 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The terraces20 Jan 2031
Anger at Al-Njoom spills outside the ground
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.
Match18 Jan 2031
Nowhere to hide for Al-Njoom
0‑5 against Al-Jeel, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market20 Jan 2031
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Jan 2031
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-Njoom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Jan 2031
3 matches without a goal for Al-Njoom
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.
Transfer targets20 Jan 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Faisaly have kept their man, and Al-Njoom go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Jan 2031
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
24 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.
Match11 Jan 2031
Al-Njoom leaking at the back
20 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match11 Jan 2031
0‑6 to Al-Shoulla, 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.
Squad13 Jan 2031
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market13 Jan 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market13 Jan 2031
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets13 Jan 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Njoom have done the hard part with Ohod, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match11 Jan 2031
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Njoom and Al-Shoulla in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad13 Jan 2031
A falling-out at Al-Njoom
Mubarak Al-Shayie and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Jan 2031
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
23 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.
Match4 Jan 2031
Al-Njoom leaking at the back
19 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad6 Jan 2031
19 days out for Montassar Toumi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Njoom will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match4 Jan 2031
Chastening afternoon for Al-Njoom
A 0‑5 beating by Al-Nahda was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Boardroom6 Jan 2031
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.
Market6 Jan 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout6 Jan 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Njoom may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets6 Jan 2031
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.
The dugout6 Jan 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Dec 2030
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
22 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.
Match28 Dec 2030
Al-Njoom are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 18 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match30 Dec 2030
Every point is an argument now for Al-Njoom
Position 16 and 1 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.
Match28 Dec 2030
Nowhere to hide for Al-Njoom
1‑5 against Al-Hazem, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Boardroom30 Dec 2030
Pressure builds in the Al-Njoom boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market30 Dec 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
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Match28 Dec 2030
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Njoom and Al-Hazem, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Dec 2030
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
21 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.
Match21 Dec 2030
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
17 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
The terraces23 Dec 2030
Supporters organise against the Al-Njoom board
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.
Squad23 Dec 2030
11 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad23 Dec 2030
33 days out for Montassar Toumi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Njoom will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match21 Dec 2030
0‑7 to Al-Faisaly, 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.
Market23 Dec 2030
Saeid Karimi hands in a written request
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Match21 Dec 2030
7 matches without a goal for Al-Njoom
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match21 Dec 2030
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Al-Njoom and Al-Faisaly, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Dec 2030
20 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 20, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Match14 Dec 2030
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
16 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad16 Dec 2030
40 days out for Montassar Toumi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Al-Njoom will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match14 Dec 2030
Chastening afternoon for Al-Njoom
A 0‑6 beating by Al-Batin was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad16 Dec 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Faisal Al-Qahtani
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Dec 2030
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.
Market16 Dec 2030
Only the photograph left for Ukeme Williams
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ukeme Williams will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match14 Dec 2030
The goals have deserted Al-Njoom
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Njoom can tell you which week it ends in.
Market16 Dec 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Dec 2030
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
19 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
Match7 Dec 2030
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
15 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Dec 2030
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Njoom lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match7 Dec 2030
0‑6 to Damac, 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.
Market9 Dec 2030
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Match7 Dec 2030
The goals have deserted Al-Njoom
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Njoom can tell you which week it ends in.
Match7 Dec 2030
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Njoom and Damac in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Beaten 6 times: a bad day for Talal Al-Enezi
5 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Nov 2030
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
18 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
Match30 Nov 2030
Al-Njoom are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 14 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad2 Dec 2030
A fracture rules Montassar Toumi out for 54 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad2 Dec 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Faisal Al-Qahtani
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match2 Dec 2030
Every point is an argument now for Al-Njoom
Position 16 and 1 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.
Match30 Nov 2030
0‑5 to Al-Riyadh, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Boardroom2 Dec 2030
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Njoom can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom2 Dec 2030
The scrutiny sharpens at Al-Njoom
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Al-Njoom is running low.
Market2 Dec 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Musawenkosi Madonsela will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Nov 2030
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
17 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 terraces25 Nov 2030
Anger at Al-Njoom spills outside the ground
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.
Match23 Nov 2030
Al-Njoom are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 13 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad25 Nov 2030
A fracture rules Montassar Toumi out for 61 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad25 Nov 2030
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Njoom lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad25 Nov 2030
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.
Match23 Nov 2030
Nowhere to hide for Al-Njoom
0‑3 against Al-Diriyah, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market25 Nov 2030
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match23 Nov 2030
The goals have deserted Al-Njoom
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Njoom can tell you which week it ends in.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Nov 2030
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
16 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Nov 2030
A fracture rules Montassar Toumi out for 68 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Al-Njoom will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match16 Nov 2030
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
12 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad18 Nov 2030
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Njoom lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match16 Nov 2030
0‑4 to Hajer, 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.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market18 Nov 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match18 Nov 2030
Halfway: Al-Njoom sit in position 16
1 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Saeid Karimi, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Al-Njoom dressing room in a hurry
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
Boardroom
Al-Njoom counting the cost
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Nov 2030
15 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Match9 Nov 2030
Chastening afternoon for Al-Njoom
A 0‑12 beating by Ohod was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Faisal Al-Qahtani damages knee ligaments — 52 days out
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.
Match9 Nov 2030
Al-Njoom are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 11 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad11 Nov 2030
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market11 Nov 2030
“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-Njoom, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match9 Nov 2030
12 goals as Al-Njoom and Ohod go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 12 goals between Al-Njoom and Ohod, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Boardroom11 Nov 2030
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
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 0‑12 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Nov 2030
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad4 Nov 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Faisal Al-Qahtani
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match4 Nov 2030
Every point is an argument now for Al-Njoom
Position 16 and 1 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.
Match2 Nov 2030
Al-Njoom leaking at the back
10 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Market4 Nov 2030
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout4 Nov 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Al-Njoom may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market4 Nov 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match2 Nov 2030
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
In brief
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
Squad
A Al-Njoom teenager takes the young player award
-
The dugout
The form table has caught Saeed Al-Khaibari
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces28 Oct 2030
Supporters organise against the Al-Njoom board
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.
Match26 Oct 2030
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
13 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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Njoom lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match26 Oct 2030
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
9 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Market28 Oct 2030
Saeid Karimi hands in a written request
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdullah Al-Enezi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
A performance of 8.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
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 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Oct 2030
12 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Faisal Al-Qahtani damages knee ligaments — 73 days out
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.
Match19 Oct 2030
Beaten 0‑4 by Al-Saudi Al-Watani, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market21 Oct 2030
Ukeme Williams has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match19 Oct 2030
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
8 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Boardroom21 Oct 2030
Al-Njoom counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Al-Njoom now.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yasser Al-Mansour, and the manager let it.
Boardroom21 Oct 2030
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Oct 2030
11 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Oct 2030
80 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Njoom lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match12 Oct 2030
Chastening afternoon for Al-Njoom
A 0‑3 beating by Al-Mojzel was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match12 Oct 2030
Al-Njoom are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Player ratings14 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom14 Oct 2030
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Oct 2030
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Faisal Al-Qahtani damages knee ligaments — 87 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
Match5 Oct 2030
10 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Match5 Oct 2030
Nowhere to hide for Al-Njoom
1‑6 against Al-Jeel, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match7 Oct 2030
Al-Njoom sink to position 16
1 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market7 Oct 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match5 Oct 2030
Al-Njoom are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match5 Oct 2030
Nobody could stop scoring
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Njoom and Al-Jeel in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The dugout7 Oct 2030
The manager makes an example of Ukeme Williams
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Sep 2030
14 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The terraces30 Sep 2030
The mood at Al-Njoom 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
94 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Njoom lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match28 Sep 2030
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
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.
Match28 Sep 2030
Chastening afternoon for Al-Njoom
A 0‑3 beating by Al-Shoulla was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match28 Sep 2030
No clean sheets in sight for Al-Njoom
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
Saeid Karimi gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom30 Sep 2030
Nobody left the Al-Njoom 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Sep 2030
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Njoom lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match21 Sep 2030
Beaten 1‑4 by Al-Nahda, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match21 Sep 2030
No end in sight to Al-Njoom's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Al-Njoom has to find a result from somewhere.
Market23 Sep 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Al-Njoom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market23 Sep 2030
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom23 Sep 2030
Al-Njoom counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Al-Njoom now.
Match21 Sep 2030
Al-Njoom are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Al-Njoom.
Boardroom23 Sep 2030
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Sep 2030
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Njoom lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match11 Sep 2030
Al-Ahli ended it 1‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Match14 Sep 2030
7 matches without a win for Al-Njoom
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Al-Njoom are no longer polite ones.
Squad16 Sep 2030
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.
Player ratings16 Sep 2030
Sami Al-Sulami, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match14 Sep 2030
Ali Al-Mansour scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Al-Hazem, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Transfer targets16 Sep 2030
Al-Njoom asked and Al-Batin 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 dugout16 Sep 2030
“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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Faisal Al-Shehri and Al-Njoom agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Sep 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Montassar Toumi
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match7 Sep 2030
Nowhere to hide for Al-Njoom
0‑3 against Al-Faisaly, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market9 Sep 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Musawenkosi Madonsela will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Al-Njoom the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market9 Sep 2030
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Match7 Sep 2030
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
5 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.
Squad9 Sep 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Montassar Toumi commits to Al-Njoom for another 2 years.
Transfer targets9 Sep 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Qadisiyah have kept their man, and Al-Njoom go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom9 Sep 2030
Nobody left the Al-Njoom 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Sep 2030
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Njoom lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces2 Sep 2030
Anger at Al-Njoom spills outside the ground
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.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
The caretaker keeps it: Interim Coach confirmed
A month of looking elsewhere ended where it started. He already knows every name in the building; the rest of it he now has to prove in public.
Squad2 Sep 2030
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.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Al-Njoom 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.
Squad2 Sep 2030
At 23 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.
Transfer targets2 Sep 2030
The deal with Al-Qadisiyah 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.
Match31 Aug 2030
The wait goes on for Al-Njoom
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.
Squad2 Sep 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Montassar Toumi and Al-Njoom agree another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Aug 2030
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Njoom lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market26 Aug 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Njoom people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match24 Aug 2030
Beaten 0‑3 by Damac, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market26 Aug 2030
Ukeme Williams has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Njoom they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets26 Aug 2030
Everything agreed with Al-Ettifaq, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets26 Aug 2030
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.
Boardroom26 Aug 2030
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad26 Aug 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Saad Al-Harbi and Al-Njoom agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout26 Aug 2030
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Aug 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Montassar Toumi
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Al-Njoom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match17 Aug 2030
Nowhere to hide for Al-Njoom
1‑4 against Al-Riyadh, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Transfer targets19 Aug 2030
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al-Hazem is saying, and nobody at Al-Njoom is enjoying the guessing.
Boardroom19 Aug 2030
Still nobody in the Al-Njoom dugout
9 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.
Squad19 Aug 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Saeid Karimi and Al-Njoom agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets19 Aug 2030
Al-Njoom asked and Al-Diriyah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market19 Aug 2030
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Talal Al-Qahtani 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.
Market19 Aug 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Turki Al-Dosari 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.
Market19 Aug 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ahmed Al-Nemer has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom12 Aug 2030
Al-Njoom run out of patience with the manager
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and the manager clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Squad12 Aug 2030
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Al-Njoom lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market12 Aug 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Al-Njoom have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom12 Aug 2030
A stranger takes charge at Al-Njoom
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
Market12 Aug 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom12 Aug 2030
“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; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
Everything agreed with Al-Diriyah, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Boardroom12 Aug 2030
4 academy players handed senior numbers at Al-Njoom
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.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ettifaq have kept their man, and Al-Njoom go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces5 Aug 2030
The mood at Al-Njoom 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.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
Al-Njoom spell it out for the manager
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. the manager has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
Emergency meeting at Al-Njoom
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.
Market5 Aug 2030
Al-Njoom say no — this time
The offer from Al-Shabab for Ukeme Williams 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.
Market5 Aug 2030
“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-Njoom can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Saeid Karimi is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Fateh have kept their man, and Al-Njoom go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market5 Aug 2030
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
Al-Njoom have made the call to Al-Ra'ed. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Khaleej keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Qadisiyah have kept their man, and Al-Njoom go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout29 Jul 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad29 Jul 2030
At 33 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Saeed Al-Khaibari was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
A loan move for Ali Al-Harbi is in the works
Al-Njoom have made the call to Al-Saudi Al-Watani. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Njoom have done the hard part with Al-Qadisiyah, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
Al-Njoom asked and Al-Diriyah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
A loan move for Kassoum Koné is in the works
Al-Njoom have made the call to Al-Ittihad. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad22 Jul 2030
A row about effort at Al-Njoom
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yasser Al-Ahmadi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom22 Jul 2030
Al-Njoom counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Al-Njoom now.
The dugout22 Jul 2030
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom15 Jul 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Njoom
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match15 Jul 2030
Every point is an argument now for Al-Njoom
Position 16 and 11 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.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Njoom have done the hard part with Al-Khaleej, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
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.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
A loan enquiry to Al-Saudi Al-Watani: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout15 Jul 2030
Saeid Karimi knocks on the manager's door
“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-Njoom, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces8 Jul 2030
Supporters organise against the Al-Njoom board
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.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
Al-Njoom put the manager on notice
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.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
Crisis meeting at Al-Njoom
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market8 Jul 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad8 Jul 2030
“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-Njoom are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
Al-Njoom 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.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
A loan enquiry to Al-Qadisiyah: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
Al-Njoom have made the call to Ohod. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
Intake day at the Al-Njoom academy
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout1 Jul 2030
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Njoom have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
The deal with Al-Diriyah 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.
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
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.
The dugout1 Jul 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout1 Jul 2030
The manager's exit leaves Montassar Toumi exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Montassar Toumi is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Squad1 Jul 2030
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Al-Njoom has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market1 Jul 2030
The name of Ukeme Williams keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Al-Njoom say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Nerves in the Al-Njoom squad
Ukeme Williams has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
Market1 Jul 2030
Al-Njoom have let the market know Saeed Al-Khaibari can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Jun 2030
At 23 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.
Transfer targets24 Jun 2030
Everything agreed with Al-Shoulla, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad24 Jun 2030
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Transfer targets24 Jun 2030
Al-Njoom asked and Al-Diriyah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Words at Al-Njoom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yasser Al-Ahmadi 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.
Boardroom24 Jun 2030
Al-Njoom counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Al-Njoom now.