From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Nov 2026
Neftchi made Kapaz work for it, but the scoreboard read 1-0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad16 Nov 2026
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Kapaz pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Pachu
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Nov 2026
Kapaz are in real trouble nowPosition 8, 12 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad9 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
AZAL take the points off Kapaz Beaten 0-1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Kapaz 's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kapaz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Pachu 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Kapaz and Qarabag take a point apieceIt finished 1-1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Pachu Pachu gets it from the manager
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Kapaz 's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kapaz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Sep 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Kapaz and Inter cancel each other outNil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Inter came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market7 Sep 2026
Ümid Səmədov hands in a written request“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kapaz can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 580% of everything Kapaz earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
César Carrizo 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The armband comes off Pachu
Kapaz will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
In brief
Market
Kapaz bring in an old head
Match
Kapaz and AZAL cancel each other out
Market
Kapaz and Elgün Bayramov are talking past each other
Market
The window shut and Pachu is still in the building
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kapaz can pretend not to have heard.
Match22 Aug 2026
Kapaz get the job done against Khazar A 1-0 win over Khazar , earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Pachu may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Market24 Aug 2026
The Dejan Vokić talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kapaz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
Pachu 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0-1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Pachu Pachu gets it from the manager
Market17 Aug 2026
Kamran Sadygov is 16, and Kapaz have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is 16, and nobody at Kapaz signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Every debut is a small story about the future: Sadiq Şəfiyev , 20 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Pachu signs a new deal“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Pachu commits to Kapaz for another 3 years.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
Nobody at Kapaz has picked up the phone to Pachu
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Pachu Pachu signs a new deal
Market3 Aug 2026
Olawale Onanuga is free to find somewhere else“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Kapaz has been clear about where Olawale Onanuga stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market3 Aug 2026
Experience through the door at Kapaz
Elguja Grigalashvili arrives at 36 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Pachu takes the armbandIt is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.