“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.
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.
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.
The dugout30 Nov 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.” Mahir Dadashov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Imishli defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Nobody at Sabah will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Turan Tovuz in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Sabah scored in the 100th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The first defeat in 12 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Qarabag; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. David Sargsyan has just signed for Sabah, and for once the answer mattered.
Joy-Lance Mickels 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.
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.
Joy-Lance Mickels 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 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Sabah will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Aleksey İsayev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sabah needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Joy-Lance Mickels has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kaheem Parris has written the date down.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Sabah has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sabah, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Shahriyar Sadygov 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eddy Jafarov 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.
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 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Joy-Lance Mickels decided nobody was going anywhere. Araz-Nakhchivan had no time left to answer.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stas Pokatilov 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nogueira is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 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 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sabah have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match24 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Sabah. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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.
“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 Sabah, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.97 on the card, and the Sabah support went home talking about one name.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Mahir Dadashov kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Zira in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Aleksey İsayev 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stas Pokatilov 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.
Shamakhi next, and one man in the Sabah dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kaheem Parris has written the date down.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sabah know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sabah has been clear about where Umarali Rahmonaliyev stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout21 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
The deal with Trem 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cruzeiro keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Sabah asked and Sumgayit said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
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.
Zamalek arrived with $2.4M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Akim Zedadka has gone, the accounts have $2.4M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Sabah asked and Turan Tovuz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
$1.9M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
He is going to MFK Ruzomberok, the club has $1.9M 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Qarabag have kept their man, and Sabah go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Aleksey İsayev 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.
A point taken on 92 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdulla Rzayev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vllaznia Shkodër 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
Sabah asked and Cardiff City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“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.
In brief
SquadAbdulla Rzayev falls out with a teammate over standards