Marked for Vugar Dadashov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Sumgayit to sit and watch. I want to come back to Khazar and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alberto Donati 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
Maksim Dadashov damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Khazar can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $135.0K — a club that wants Jérémie Gnali enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at APOEL is saying, and nobody at Khazar is enjoying the guessing.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Khazar
Ruslan Ozobic 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Khazar offered $130.0K; Qarabag said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Alberto Donati
“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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maksim Dadashov
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Khazar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Khazar can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kapaz had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Khazar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alberto Donati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match22 Aug 2026
Kapaz made Khazar work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad24 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 8.49 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.