Marked for Valentin Ushakov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maksim Dadashov
21 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Samir Huseynov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Khazar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market18 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Kamran Sheydaev again, and this time the name on the line is Rapid Wien. Khazar are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad18 Jan 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Emre Bilgin 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Khazar have had the benefit of it.
Market4 Jan 2027
Zira come back empty-handed
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.
Market4 Jan 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 The request is on a desk at Khazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Market30 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at Khazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Khazar
Emre Bilgin 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Mihkel Ainsalu 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
85 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Khazar
Emre Bilgin 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mihkel Ainsalu 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.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.32, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Qarabag to sit and watch. I want to come back to Khazar and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
99 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Khazar — 7.99
1 for Agil Garayev, 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Khazar
Cəlal Hüseynov 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emre Bilgin 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Three points for Khazar, 2‑1 the final word against Neftchi in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
Match21 Sep 2026
Khazar refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 10 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad21 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 Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
6 unbeaten for Khazar
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Khazar did not have in the autumn.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cəlal Hüseynov 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
133 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market7 Sep 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 Khazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Khazar
Emre Bilgin 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mihkel Ainsalu 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Qarabag made Khazar work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.30 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
140 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.
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Khazar
Mihkel Ainsalu 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
Cəlal Hüseynov 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.