Marked for Rufat Abdullayev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jun 2028
“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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Tempers go at Khazar
Cavid Nazarov 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Ortale 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
The medical room confirms 29 days on the sidelines for Rufat Abdullayev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom26 Jun 2028
89% of the income goes out in wages at Khazar
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad26 Jun 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 May 2028
Tempers go at Khazar
Cavid Nazarov 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Oguzhan Omur 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.
Squad29 May 2028
The medical room confirms 35 days on the sidelines for Shahriyar Guseynov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad29 May 2028
59 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom29 May 2028
Wages eat 90% of everything Khazar earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market29 May 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Cavid Nazarov signs something — a contract at Khazar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Dec 2027
Rufat Abdullayev damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Market13 Dec 2027
“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 Khazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Dec 2027
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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oguzhan Omur 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.
Match11 Dec 2027
A bad afternoon for Khazar against Zira
1‑2 to Zira, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match1 Dec 2027
Cup progress for Khazar
A 1‑0 win over Gabala, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad6 Dec 2027
Rufat Abdullayev damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The Khazar board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Tempers go at Khazar
Cavid Nazarov 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Ortale 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.
Match4 Dec 2027
A bad afternoon for Khazar against Neftchi
0‑2 to Neftchi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yegor Baburin, and the manager let it.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Ninety minutes of Oguzhan Omur at his very best
Marked 8.29. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Khazar.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Nov 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rufat Abdullayev
29 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Nov 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rufat Abdullayev
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.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Oguzhan Omur 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.