The Khazar Gazette
Market3 Aug 2026
Rufat Mammadov puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at Khazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
An offer of $800.0K for Alessio Curci
Khazar have gone to Neftchi with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Rufat Garayev stays put
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rufat Garayev and Khazar agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Khazar make their move for Edvin Kuč
$140.0K on the table at Neftchi. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Khazar rebuffed over Andriy Shtogrin
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Neftchi have kept their man, and Khazar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Muhammed Soyuncu 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Kamran Dadashov 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Rufat Garayev's contract
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Mahir Abdullayev 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 Mahir Abdullayev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
- Market Mahir Mammadov is free to find somewhere else
- Squad Mahir Abdullayev wants to know why he earns less