Marked for Rashad Medvedev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.51, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Álex Blanco. 2‑1 against Ankaragucu, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.18, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Umraniyespor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charles 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Umraniyespor will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ibrahim Soyuncu, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad14 Sep 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Umraniyespor are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 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 The request is on a desk at Umraniyespor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tomislav Glumac and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 Aug 2026
Alanyaspor left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Tbilisi have kept their man, and Umraniyespor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Santiago Kojro
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Charles was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Ibrahim Soyuncu to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Petar Marinov
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Adana Demirspor for Yusuf Kocatürk was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Umraniyespor asked and Shakhtar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match22 Aug 2026
Antalyaspor left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Umraniyespor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charles 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ibrahim Soyuncu after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Petar Marinov dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
$8.3M from Urawa Reds for Semyon Yefremov. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Market17 Aug 2026
Khazar make Alessio Curci the dearest name in their history
$760.0K. Fees like that buy a footballer and rent a debate: every touch will be measured against the number for a season at least.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market17 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market17 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Khazar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Khazar sell a favourite for $8.3M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Semyon Yefremov was one of the reasons people came, and $8.3M does not replace that by itself.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Khazar
Alberto Donati 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Khazar
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Match15 Aug 2026
Alberto Donati scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to AZAL, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
In brief
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The terraces
Khazar spend $760.0K on the signing the town wanted
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Transfer targets
Door shut on Samuel Lobato
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Squad
Javid Huseynov falls out with a teammate over standards
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Khazar did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Urawa Reds have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Semyon Yefremov. The answer from Khazar has not changed — yet.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Sumgayit this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Alberto Donati 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 targets3 Aug 2026
Qarabag have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Sumgayit have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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. Khazar will not keep him by pretending otherwise.