Marked for Reda Kafi
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Jan 2033
Elmin Bayramov damages knee ligaments — 91 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 91 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.
Market31 Jan 2033
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2033
Everything agreed with Sumgayit, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad31 Jan 2033
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shimal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2033
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Shimal can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2033
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sumgayit have kept their man, and Shimal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Jan 2033
Cavanşir Şahbazli 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.
The dugout31 Jan 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Merih Under, and the manager let it.
Market31 Jan 2033
The clock does Nihad Tamazov’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Shimal could ask drops and the wages Nihad Tamazov can ask rise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jan 2033
105 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shimal lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match17 Jan 2033
Shimal sink to position 9
13 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market17 Jan 2033
“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 The request is on a desk at Shimal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2033
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Shimal have done the hard part with Kapaz, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad17 Jan 2033
Words exchanged at Shimal
Tommaso Arrigoni 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 dugout17 Jan 2033
The manager makes an example of Elmin Bayramov
“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.
Boardroom17 Jan 2033
Shimal are $3.9M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad17 Jan 2033
Reda Kafi 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.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2033
A loan enquiry to Karvan: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces27 Dec 2032
Anger at Shimal 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.
Boardroom27 Dec 2032
The scrutiny sharpens at Shimal
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Shimal is running low.
Market27 Dec 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shimal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Dec 2032
Words exchanged at Shimal
Elmin Bayramov 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.
Match25 Dec 2032
Imishli left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom27 Dec 2032
159% of the income goes out in wages at Shimal
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The dugout27 Dec 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nail Alışov, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Dec 2032
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 1‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad27 Dec 2032
Words at Shimal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reda Kafi 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Dec 2032
Shimal sink to position 8
13 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market20 Dec 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings20 Dec 2032
Age has not caught Miki yet — 7.99
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Tempers go at Shimal
Elmin Bayramov 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.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Words at Shimal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cavanşir Şahbazli 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.
Match18 Dec 2032
A 1‑0 win over Jabrayil, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Boardroom20 Dec 2032
Shimal are $4.0M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout20 Dec 2032
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.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Player ratings20 Dec 2032
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Dec 2032
11 saves: Nail Alışov was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market13 Dec 2032
Henry Ward 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 Shimal can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout13 Dec 2032
“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.
Squad13 Dec 2032
A falling-out at Shimal
Tommaso Arrigoni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Dec 2032
A row about effort at Shimal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cavanşir Şahbazli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces13 Dec 2032
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match11 Dec 2032
Sporting Baku made Shimal work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Boardroom13 Dec 2032
Shimal cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad13 Dec 2032
At 33, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Nov 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad15 Nov 2032
A falling-out at Shimal
Cavanşir Şahbazli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom15 Nov 2032
Shimal cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad15 Nov 2032
Words at Shimal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reda Kafi 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 dugout15 Nov 2032
Nihad Tamazov 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 Shimal, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market15 Nov 2032
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2032
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2032
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Mingachevir in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Squad15 Nov 2032
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Shimal would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Oct 2032
The wait goes on for Shimal
16 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match25 Oct 2032
Shimal are in real trouble now
Position 10, 3 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.
Squad25 Oct 2032
Tempers go at Shimal
Tommaso Arrigoni 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 dugout25 Oct 2032
“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.
Match23 Oct 2032
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom25 Oct 2032
Shimal are $3.9M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Match25 Oct 2032
The half-term report on Shimal
Position 10, 3 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
“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.
Squad25 Oct 2032
Words at Shimal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reda Kafi 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Aug 2032
9 matches without a win for Shimal
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Shimal are no longer polite ones.
Market30 Aug 2032
“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 Shimal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match28 Aug 2032
The goals have deserted Shimal
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shimal can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad30 Aug 2032
Tempers go at Shimal
Tommaso Arrigoni 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.
Squad30 Aug 2032
Words at Shimal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cavanşir Şahbazli 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.
Match28 Aug 2032
0‑1 to Mingachevir, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom30 Aug 2032
Shimal are $3.8M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout30 Aug 2032
“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 dugout30 Aug 2032
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.