Marked for Aaron Malouda
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match3 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Sabah do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Sabah
Aleksey İsayev 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Sabah
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Lepinjica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Orphé Mbina named player of the month
The award goes to Orphé Mbina, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Squad5 Oct 2026
International break empties Sabah
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Mahir Dadashov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Sabah dressing room was either.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Aaron Malouda dropped after a run of poor form
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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Xəyal Əliyev
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match26 Sep 2026
Sabah make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Sabah have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sabah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
Karvan made Sabah work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Nogueira wants to go home
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sabah know it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Sabah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Lepinjica 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.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I watch every Sabah game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Jabrayil runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Mahir Dadashov, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
Sabah say no — this time
The offer from Pakhtakor for Joy-Lance Mickels 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Javid Nadirov 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Sumgayit made Sabah work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.04 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ivan Lepinjica 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Umarali Rahmonaliyev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
The bid was some way short and Sabah did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sabah, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 9 in, 6 out at Sabah
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Trem keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Sabah asked and Neftchi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Sabah
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Lepinjica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Carlão in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sabah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Aaron Malouda named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Aaron Malouda is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Orphé Mbina moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Sabah than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sabah people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market10 Aug 2026
MC Alger come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sabah did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sabah this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Cavid Mammadov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rufat Ozobic 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sabah can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Spezia: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Sabah
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Xəyal Əliyev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.