Marked for Emin Abdullayev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emin Abdullayev
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inter lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match15 Feb 2027
Every point is an argument now for Inter
Position 8 and 13 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Tamkin Medvedev out for 33 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inter will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market15 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rufat Ramazanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inter the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Nikolai Alho wants to finish where he started
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Inter now know that too.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Inter
Vugar Jafarov 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emin Abdullayev
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inter lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
Qara Sadygov has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Inter can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Inter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolai Alho 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edinson Chávez, and the manager let it.
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
“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 0 appearances in 26 say he has earned the hearing.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
Inter pull $190.2K back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Market8 Feb 2027
The name of Yefferson Colmenárez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Inter say nothing, which says plenty.
Market8 Feb 2027
The window shut and Rahid Dadashov is still in the building
Inter spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Feb 2027
The mood at Inter has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Emin Abdullayev damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Inter
Vugar Jafarov 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.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
“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 6 appearances in 24 say he has earned the hearing.
Market1 Feb 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Nikolai Alho may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market1 Feb 2027
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Javid Ramazanov leaves Inter the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
Emin Abdullayev damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emin Abdullayev
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inter lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match18 Jan 2027
Inter 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.
The terraces18 Jan 2027
Supporters turn on the $250.0K sale of Bahlul Bayramov
He is going to Khazar, the club has $250.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market18 Jan 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Inter is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market18 Jan 2027
Khazar paid $250.0K and Inter took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Nikolai Alho 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Ravan paid $30.0K and Inter took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Inter
Yefferson Colmenárez 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Inter will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces7 Dec 2026
The mood at Inter has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match5 Dec 2026
9 matches without a win for Inter
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Inter are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Qara Sadygov has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Inter can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match2 Dec 2026
The small margins put Inter out
Out, 0‑2 to Khazar, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A chastening introduction for Cavid Huseynov — 5.59
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.59 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Nikolai Alho 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.