Saudi giants Al Ittihad facing ‘drift and doubt’ as financial strain fuels transfer turmoil

Al Ittihad are heading into the new season surrounded by anger from their own fans and accusations of muddled leadership, with financial strain, stalled transfers and a lack of clear planning raising fears that one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest clubs is sliding towards a crisis.

What began as frustration over results on the pitch and slow movement in the transfer market has widened into a broader dispute over how the club is being run. Supporters now argue Al Ittihad are living through one of their most difficult periods in years, amid what they see as contradictory decisions and mounting financial pressures that threaten the entire project.

Missed targets and stalled transfer window

After a season in which Al Ittihad failed to hit their major objectives, expectations among fans were for an assertive, ambitious summer window to restore the team as a genuine contender. Instead, the club have become associated with delays, U‐turns and withdrawals from deals, with no convincing vision for the future publicly evident.

The underlying problem appears to be financial rather than purely footballing. Indicators around the club suggest the board is wrestling with a significant liquidity issue, which has had a direct and visible impact on recruitment.

Al Ittihad have been linked with a string of high‐profile names, from Imam Ashour and Marwan Attia to Azzedine Ounahi and Raphael Onyedika. Negotiations were opened, and the club’s name repeatedly surfaced in reports as a serious suitor, yet none of those pursuits were converted into completed signings. Instead, the pattern has been of joining transfer races that the hierarchy seem to know, in advance, they may not be able to finish.

The situation escalated further when the club pulled back from finalising a deal for Abdullah Radif despite reaching an agreement with the player. The move collapsed because the necessary funds were not available to complete the contract, and Radif subsequently joined another team.

Name in the rumours, missing from the deals

Al Ittihad have become ubiquitous in transfer headlines but absent from actual registrations. Time and again, the club emerges as a contender for a leading player, only for talks to end without success.

Those failures have been attributed to limited financial capacity, hesitation at decision‐making level and shifting internal priorities. Collectively, they have fostered a perception among fans that Al Ittihad now “negotiate more than they sign”, while rival clubs act more decisively to secure their own targets.

This sense of drift has sharpened criticism of the board, with supporters arguing that the problems go beyond individual transfer setbacks and stem from the way the club is being managed.

New coach Jens Vissing waiting for promised reinforcements

The appointment of German coach Jens Vissing was presented as the start of a fresh long‐term project. However, the current reality is that he has yet to receive the resources promised to implement his ideas.

Vissing is understood to have requested specific reinforcements, particularly in the holding midfield role and in the playmaker position. To this point, the club have not delivered on those requests, and pre‐season preparations have begun with clear gaps in several key areas of the squad.

If the transfer window continues to unfold at its current pace, Al Ittihad risk entering the new campaign with almost the same line‐up that underwhelmed last season – despite a widespread acknowledgement within and outside the club that the team needs substantial rebuilding.

Growing rift with the fanbase

Perhaps the most serious consequence of the ongoing turmoil is the widening rift between the board and the Al Ittihad fanbase. Calls for changes at management level are growing louder by the day, with many supporters now convinced that the root of the crisis lies not with the coach or the players, but with the club’s leadership and the absence of a coherent plan.

With the new season fast approaching, the board faces a defining test. Either Al Ittihad salvage their transfer window, address their financial and strategic issues and restore some measure of trust, or they begin the campaign in a charged, hostile atmosphere – one in which the pressure on everyone at the club could become more intense than at any point in recent memory.