Marked for Paulo Roberto
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Nov 2026
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Ruslan Abdullayev decided nobody was going anywhere. Khazar had no time left to answer.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Inter
Paulo Roberto 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match21 Nov 2026
Inter get the job done against Khazar
A 3‑2 win over Khazar, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Ruslan Abdullayev at his very best
Marked 8.28. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Inter.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Afran Ramazanov
“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 dugout23 Nov 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.” Maksim Guseynov kept it short after the 3‑2 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Inter
Javid Dadashov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rodolfo Potiguar, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes Alan Caruaru a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Inter. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market16 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Rahid Dadashov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Emin Medvedev 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 45. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Inter
Afran Ramazanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.
Match7 Nov 2026
A bad afternoon for Inter against Gabala
0‑1 to Gabala, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout9 Nov 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 0‑1 Maksim Guseynov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Market9 Nov 2026
Caner Muldur is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Inter has been clear about where Caner Muldur stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The plan did not have a place for Alan Caruaru
Nobody at Inter is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Emin Jafarov called up by his country
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Inter that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Inter that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Inter — 7.98
1 for Ayaz Guliev, marked 7.98, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Inter are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match31 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Rahid Dadashov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Inter.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Inter
Samir Ramazanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 7.06 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Muhammed Erkin named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Muhammed Erkin 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
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Maksim Guseynov on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Paulo Roberto 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Inter
Ayaz Guliev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
25 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 39 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Inter are still strangers to each other
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Caio Bezerra 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.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Edvin Kuč commits to Inter for another 2 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ayaz Guliev 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 Inter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Inter against Neftchi
0‑2 to Neftchi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
No hiding place for Edvin Kuč
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edvin Kuč, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market5 Oct 2026
At 39, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.