Marked for Samir Mammadov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
AZAL come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ravan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market31 Aug 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Sumgayit left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Ravan
Kirill Ivanov 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Ravan say no — this time
The offer from Gabala for Ruslan Mammadov 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rufat Jafarov and Ravan agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Ravan
Rufat Guseynov 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rufat Guseynov, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Rufat Jafarov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market10 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Shahriyar Nazarov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Ravan.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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 Inter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Samir Mammadov has come up in conversations Inter were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Samir Jafarov 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
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ruslan Huseynov commits to Inter for another 1 years.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Inter has been clear about where Dimitrij Garayev stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Agil Dadashov knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Inter, and both men came out saying it was fine.