Marked for Samir Abdullayev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Feb 2027
The name of Rashad Jafarov has come up in conversations Khazar were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Khazar
Oscar Naasei 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Khazar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sota Kitano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“I watch every Khazar game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gabala runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Cəlal Hüseynov'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 dugout15 Feb 2027
Oscar Naasei has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Khazar 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Khazar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Bahlul Sheydaev
“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.
Market15 Feb 2027
The Ayaz Guliev talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Khazar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 Feb 2027
Khazar sink to position 10
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Khazar
Oscar Naasei 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddy Sheydaev 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 dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Eddy Sheydaev
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vicente Alfaro commits to Khazar for another 3 years.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Khazar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Nerves in the Khazar squad
Sota Kitano has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
Market8 Feb 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rashad Jafarov signs something — a contract at Khazar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market8 Feb 2027
No fee and no drama: Vicente Alfaro has signed at Khazar, and the wage bill is the only line that moved.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Javid Bayramov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Khazar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market25 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Oscar Naasei 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 Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market25 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Khazar have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cəlal Hüseynov 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Ravan paid $50.0K and Khazar took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Flávio Boaventura, and the manager let it.
Market25 Jan 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mahir Garayev has his answer from Khazar; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Sota Kitano has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Khazar know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Naasei 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 dugout21 Dec 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Wages swallow 87% of the Khazar 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rahid Garayev and Khazar agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Oct 2026
12 matches without a win for Khazar
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Khazar are no longer polite ones.
Match31 Oct 2026
0‑4 to Inter, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Khazar may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market2 Nov 2026
“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 Khazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Oscar Naasei 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 Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cəlal Hüseynov 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 dugout2 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Khazar dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Shirak had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Khazar have done the hard part with Real Madrid, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Maksim Ozobic and Khazar agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Cəlal Hüseynov 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 targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Red Bull Salzburg have kept their man, and Khazar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Khazar know which stage they are at.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan move for Kauã Elias is in the works
Khazar have made the call to Shakhtar. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.