Marked for Andrej Đokanović
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
Jéferson Forneck and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
The leaders are next for Umraniyespor
Sivasspor top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Atalay Babacan 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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager makes Oğuz Yıldırım a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Umraniyespor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market29 Mar 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Übeyd Adıyaman may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
Marcos Gómez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Pendikspor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market31 Aug 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout31 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 0‑2 Merih Unal left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Felipe Micael 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Umraniyespor would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A pay cut and a fresh start for Melih Akyüz
Not every move is upward. Melih Akyüz has accepted terms at Umraniyespor that are worse than the ones he left, and the only question that matters now is whether the football makes up for it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.