Marked for Malek Ishuayed
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Servette, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match31 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Bellinzona
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Malek Ishuayed at 19 — 7.68
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Malek Ishuayed did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Keyan Varela 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 Bellinzona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Itaitinga 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 terraces2 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Malek Ishuayed has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Looking ahead2 Nov 2026
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Alberto Trapero
“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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
$2.3M on the table at Bellinzona
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 58. 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.
Match28 Oct 2026
The cup run ends for Servette
0‑1 against Bellinzona, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Varol Tasar 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Miroslav Stevanović 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“83 caps was 83 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 37 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Servette.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Servette, another week without a signature from Lubambo Musonda.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Servette, and 7 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alberto Trapero and Bellinzona agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Bellinzona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alberto Trapero 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 targets3 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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Andrés López 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.
Squad3 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 Bellinzona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
St. Gallen 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 targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Westerlo: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Malek Ishuayed is in the works
Bellinzona have made the call to Servette. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Admir Akanji chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Aug 2026
10 seasons and 289 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Miroslav Stevanović and Servette agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Servette
Yoan Severin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Servette training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miroslav Stevanović 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 targets3 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Malek Ishuayed has come up in conversations Servette were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Joël Mall's contract
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Florian Ayé 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 Florian Ayé trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.