Marked for Altamish Khan
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
A fracture rules France Catarogo out for 103 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tailevu Naitasiri will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer from Ba for France Catarogo 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
Rajneel Singh has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tailevu Naitasiri they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The deal with Rewa 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Abhishek Deo 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 targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Ba: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Nadi 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 targets4 Jan 2027
Tailevu Naitasiri have made the call to Rewa. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Mohammed Rasasa 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
The knee: Dave Verevou out for 20 days
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tailevu Naitasiri lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market7 Dec 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tailevu Naitasiri can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Dec 2026
Only the photograph left for Rajneel Singh
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rajneel Singh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tailevu Naitasiri the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Abhishek Deo 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Taniela Rakariva 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nischal Lal and Tailevu Naitasiri agree another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Nov 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 Tailevu Naitasiri, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Nov 2026
Only the photograph left for Rajneel Singh
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rajneel Singh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tailevu Naitasiri the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Abhishek Deo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mohammed Rasasa'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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Altamish Khan gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Altamish Khan is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abhishek Deo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Taniela Rakariva and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and Tailevu Naitasiri are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Oct 2026
“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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Rajneel Singh
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rajneel Singh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tailevu Naitasiri the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Abhishek Deo 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
Uneasy
Market14 Sep 2026
“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.
Market14 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tailevu Naitasiri is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Taniela Rakariva 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Tailevu Naitasiri training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abhishek Deo 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 watch14 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Suva to sit and watch. I want to come back to Tailevu Naitasiri and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Mohammed Rasasa 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Altamish Khan gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Altamish Khan is on it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Nischal Lal 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Tailevu Naitasiri opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Turendran Kumar stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
Nasinu ended it 1‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Altamish Khan at 19 — 7.62
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Altamish Khan did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Abhishek Deo 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ushant Lal runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
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 Beniamino Nailatikau left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mohammed Rasasa'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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
At 20 years old, Rajneel Kumar became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.