Marked for Uğur Çiftçi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
6 matches without a win for Sivasspor
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Sivasspor are no longer polite ones.
Match19 Sep 2026
5 matches without a goal for Sivasspor
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Charis Charisis 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Murat Paluli 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Oğuz Aydın runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabijan Buntić, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Sivasspor's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sivasspor has to find a result from somewhere.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a goal for Sivasspor
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad14 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 Sivasspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Valon Ethemi 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cihat Çelik, and the manager let it.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Umraniyespor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 46 days on the sidelines for Uğur Çiftçi, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Oğuz Aydın
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
4 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Sivasspor
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Sivasspor are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Charis Charisis 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
3 matches without a goal for Sivasspor
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Emir Faccioli, and the manager let it.
Match5 Sep 2026
Alanyaspor left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Rodrigo Mazur 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Fabijan Buntić 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 ratings7 Sep 2026
An afternoon Uğur Çiftçi will want back
Marked 5.63. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
Rey Manaj sold, and an era ends
$11.2M from Burnley for Rey Manaj. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 31 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $11.2M sale of Rey Manaj
He is going to Burnley, the club has $11.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad31 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 Sivasspor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Sivasspor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Murat Paluli 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alan Alegre, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Aly Mallé
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Sivasspor
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Market31 Aug 2026
Uğur Çiftçi told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Uğur Çiftçi has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sivasspor.