8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“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 The request is on a desk at Al-Shoulla, and it is not being withdrawn.
Misael was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Adel Al-Mutairi is living that version at Al-Shoulla, and it tends to show in the first month.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nidhal Ben Salem 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Wael Abdullah has his answer from Al-Shoulla; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Adeeb Al-Hassan is living that version at Al-Shoulla, and it tends to show in the first month.
6 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.
Kissimbo 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Misael 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.
Salman Al-Mansour is 16, and Al-Shoulla have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
He is 16, and nobody at Al-Shoulla signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Shoulla can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Shoulla and Al-Riyadh, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
Beaten 6 times, with 3 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
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.
Sinali Béré was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Shoulla can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
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.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Sinali Béré 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.
Misael was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratingsReinaldo López spends the afternoon fouling
19Edition
The Al-Shoulla Chronicle
7 Dec 2026
From our football correspondentSteady
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
An order from above at Al-Shoulla: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Al-Shoulla and Al-Fayha in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Misael 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sinali Béré 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
239% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Shoulla
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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jairo Pérez. 2‑0 against Al-Mojzel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
10 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
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.
Sinali Béré 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.
Match11 Nov 2026
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-Shoulla and Al-Ahli in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Sinali Béré 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.
Misael was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Al-Shoulla can tell you which week it ends in.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
239% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Shoulla
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.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
Misael 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sinali Béré 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.
9 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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Al-Shoulla have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
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.
Sinali Béré was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
282% of the income goes out in wages at Al-Shoulla
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.
“I watch every Al-Shoulla game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Saudi Al-Watani runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
0‑3 to Al-Njoom, 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.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Misael was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Saeed Al-Ahmadi obliged against Al-Nahda. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Al-Shoulla.
Marked 7.88. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Al-Shoulla and Al-Diriyah, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
8.27. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Misael 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 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sinali Béré 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.
“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-Shoulla can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nidhal Ben Salem 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.
Sinali Béré 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Jalal Al-Salem from Al-Ettifaq for $510.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Shoulla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Misael is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Al-Shoulla know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Jalal Al-Salem is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 1‑0 win over Al-Saudi Al-Watani, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Al-Shoulla will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Shoulla, another week without a signature from Victor Peter.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Victor Peter has just signed for Al-Shoulla, and for once the answer mattered.
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-Shoulla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jorge Zárate 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nidhal Ben Salem and Al-Shoulla agree another 3 years.
Sinali Béré 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.
Add another name to the list: Al-Saudi Al-Watani have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mousa Sufiani. The answer from Al-Shoulla has not changed — yet.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Al-Shoulla know it, and so does everybody who watches him.