Marked for Vugar Garayev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Sep 2026
Kapaz punish Inter for switching off
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Richard Jafarov will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Inter escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Afran Khalilzade out for 72 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inter will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match19 Sep 2026
Inter are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Inter
Vugar Garayev 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Deniz Ozdemir, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.47 — 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
It needed Richard Jafarov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Kapaz, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Inter, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Afran Khalilzade out for 86 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inter will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Richard Jafarov takes the afternoon — 8.74
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Richard Jafarov provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Zira made Inter work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match5 Sep 2026
Inter are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Vugar Guseynov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Inter needed to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Aug 2026
The unthinkable, invoiced: Antonio Fabbri sold
Hellas Verona arrived with $5.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Afran Khalilzade out for 102 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inter will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.34, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Inter sell a favourite for $5.1M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Antonio Fabbri was one of the reasons people came, and $5.1M does not replace that by itself.
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 Inter can pretend not to have heard.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 4‑3, and it was Vugar Garayev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Inter.
Match22 Aug 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Inter and Gabala in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Inter
Bahlul 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Afran Khalilzade out for 117 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inter will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vugar Garayev commits to Inter for another 4 years.
Squad10 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Inter have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad10 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Aris come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Inter did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Inter
Vugar Garayev 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Kamran Khalilzade again, and this time the name on the line is Alashkert. Inter are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Inter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Fabbri 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Inter know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Shahriyar Amirguliyev and Inter agree another 1 years.