Marked for Dragoş Enache
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Apr 2032
Every point is an argument now for DIFAI Agsu
Position 10 and 3 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Hüseyn Əliyev 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.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Abdul Fofana 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 dugout26 Apr 2032
Răzvan Gunie knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Răzvan Gunie trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market26 Apr 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Abdul Fofana’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market26 Apr 2032
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs DIFAI Agsu money.
Market26 Apr 2032
DIFAI Agsu have made Joel Tenreiro available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Boardroom26 Apr 2032
The DIFAI Agsu academy earns its keep
45 graduates, from a department now rated 3 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Questions about Dragoş Enache on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Apr 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 The request is on a desk at DIFAI Agsu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Apr 2032
Jelle van der Heyden 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.
Boardroom12 Apr 2032
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Squad12 Apr 2032
The medical room confirms 25 days on the sidelines for Emin Khalilzade, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market12 Apr 2032
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at DIFAI Agsu can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
Asif Məmmədov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at DIFAI Agsu 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.
Market12 Apr 2032
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Dragoş Enache has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at DIFAI Agsu.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
Joel Tenreiro 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
Crisis
Market9 Feb 2032
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around DIFAI Agsu they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Balázs Ulviczki and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets9 Feb 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Neftchi have kept their man, and DIFAI Agsu go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom9 Feb 2032
Wages swallow 221% of the DIFAI Agsu 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.
Boardroom9 Feb 2032
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.
Market9 Feb 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.
Market9 Feb 2032
Miroslav Rusnak is 19, and DIFAI Agsu 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.
Squad9 Feb 2032
This league is too small for Oskar Dari
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. DIFAI Agsu will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 May 2031
“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.
Market26 May 2031
Only the photograph left for Rufat Dadashov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rufat Dadashov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around DIFAI Agsu the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 May 2031
Hüseyn Əliyev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 May 2031
A row about effort at DIFAI Agsu
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom26 May 2031
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Squad26 May 2031
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout26 May 2031
Ceyhun Muxtarlı 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.
Market26 May 2031
The name of Samir Məhərrəmli keeps appearing in other people's back pages. DIFAI Agsu say nothing, which says plenty.
Market26 May 2031
DIFAI Agsu have made Ramin Ebrahimi available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Apr 2031
Rufat Dadashov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around DIFAI Agsu they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Words at DIFAI Agsu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucão 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.
Squad28 Apr 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at DIFAI Agsu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom28 Apr 2031
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at DIFAI Agsu, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
The manager makes an example of Kristijan Tadic
“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.
Market28 Apr 2031
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ramin Ebrahimi may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad28 Apr 2031
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Market28 Apr 2031
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs DIFAI Agsu money.