Marked for Javid Mammadov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
Javid Mammadov damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Inter is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Inter
Eddy Dadashov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market26 Jul 2027
Gabala paid $230.0K and Inter took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Agil Ramazanov 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Mohammed Asamoah
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Inter will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Huracán: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
Agil Ramazanov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Inter will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market26 Jul 2027
The name of Agil Ramazanov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Inter say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Javid Mammadov
25 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Al Nasr had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market19 Jul 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Inter they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Everything agreed with Argentinos Juniors, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Inter
Richard Bayramov 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 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Inter
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agil Ramazanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo Riestra have kept their man, and Inter go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
The medical room confirms 25 days on the sidelines for Javid Medvedev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market19 Jul 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Inter will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Javid Mammadov
32 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.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Inter may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market12 Jul 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.
Squad12 Jul 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 Inter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market12 Jul 2027
Al Nasr are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Inter will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad12 Jul 2027
At 30 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Inter
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Richard Bayramov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Deportivo Riestra: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Argentinos Juniors: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.