Marked for Max Guerrero
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces10 Sep 2029
Supporters organise against the Inter board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Rahid Amirguliyev damages knee ligaments — 66 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 66 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
Ramil Şeydayev, 33, rolls back the years — 8.17
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.17 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Tempers go at Inter
Ramil Şeydayev 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.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. 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 dugout10 Sep 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad10 Sep 2029
A row about effort at Inter
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agil Sadygov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match8 Sep 2029
Late, late show earns Inter a point
Minute 92, against AZAL, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Match8 Sep 2029
Inter and AZAL take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Jul 2029
Rahid Amirguliyev damages knee ligaments — 120 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 120 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market23 Jul 2029
Isaac Amoah 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 Inter can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Jul 2029
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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad23 Jul 2029
At 33 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
Wages eat 103% of everything Inter 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.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
Max Guerrero 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.
Market23 Jul 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Inter know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Inter, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Agil Dadashov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market8 Jan 2029
Saburtalo come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Inter did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market8 Jan 2029
Isaac Amoah 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 Inter can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Jan 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Easah Suliman and Inter agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Tempers go at Inter
Ramil Şeydayev 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.
Market8 Jan 2029
The name of Edvin Kuč has come up in conversations Inter were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Inter
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agil Sadygov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
Wages eat 130% of everything Inter 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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Cristian Bagordo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Jun 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inter can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words exchanged at Inter
Ramil Şeydayev 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Agil Sadygov 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.
Boardroom26 Jun 2028
Wages swallow 100% of the Inter income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Rufat Ismayilov's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
Max Guerrero 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.
Market26 Jun 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Inter know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
Afran Huseynov knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Inter, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
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 Murad Məmmədov has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces24 Apr 2028
Anger at Inter spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom24 Apr 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Inter
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad24 Apr 2028
41 days out for Rodrigo Dantas after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Inter will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market24 Apr 2028
“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 Inter, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Inter
Ramil Şeydayev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Inter
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agil Sadygov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Apr 2028
“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.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Max Guerrero 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.
Market24 Apr 2028
The name of Orkhan Guseynov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Inter say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Apr 2028
56 days out for Rodrigo Dantas after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Inter will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Tempers go at Inter
Ramil Şeydayev 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Christianno pulls a muscle — 18 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“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.
Loan watch10 Apr 2028
“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 Inter, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ruslan Huseynov is on it.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Christianno knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Inter, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market10 Apr 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Inter know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.