Marked for Emin Medvedev
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Inter lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Inter — 7.99
1 for Ayaz Guliev, marked 7.99, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad28 Sep 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Miguel Terceros 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Kapaz made Inter work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.20, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Renat Amirguliyev
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Inter will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maksim Khalilzade
94 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Inter
Cəlal Hüseynov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Inter
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miguel Terceros was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Cəlal Hüseynov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.51, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Inter are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Orkhan Abdullayev was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Inter dressing room was either.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Point won or two lost for Inter?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against AZAL? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maksim Khalilzade
101 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market14 Sep 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 Inter can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Lee Jenkins arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lee Jenkins has, at Inter, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Inter asked and Cruzeiro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Inter
Ayaz Guliev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for Inter against Zira
0‑1 to Zira, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The formation has left Lee Jenkins behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Inter will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad17 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maksim Khalilzade
131 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Inter say no — this time
The offer from Kapaz for Emin Medvedev 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $89.0K — a club that wants Hacıağa Hacılı enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Khazar, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Corinthians keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Inter
Cəlal Hüseynov 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 targets17 Aug 2026
Inter have gone to Zira 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
1 academy graduates step up at Inter
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Inter asked and APOEL said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.