Marked for Samir Sheydaev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
Ruslan Jafarov 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.
Market15 Feb 2027
Araz Mammadov hands in a written request
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Inter
Samir Sheydaev 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Dec 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.
Squad28 Dec 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.
Loan watch28 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Umraniyespor to sit and watch. I want to come back to Inter and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Dec 2026
Ravan punish Inter for switching off
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Ilhan Fakili will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Inter escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Ilhan Fakili takes the afternoon — 8.23
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ilhan Fakili provided it, and the 8.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad14 Dec 2026
There were 6 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.
Squad14 Dec 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Inter
Javid Jafarov 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
Crisis
Squad7 Dec 2026
There were 12 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Chastening afternoon for Inter
A 0‑4 beating by Qarabag was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match2 Dec 2026
Inter bow out of the cup
Khazar go through and Inter go home, 2‑9 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
A cup hiding at Khazar leaves Inter explaining themselves
2-9, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad7 Dec 2026
He is 20, he is averaging 7.17, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Market7 Dec 2026
Only the photograph left for Javid Guseynov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Javid Guseynov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inter the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match2 Dec 2026
Deniz Yilmaz among the goals in a wild afternoon
11 goals in one match, Deniz Yilmaz on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Inter and Khazar.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Inter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samir Sheydaev 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Nov 2026
Javid Guseynov has one foot out of the door
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
He is 20, he is averaging 7.16, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Inter
Samir Sheydaev 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The Inter dressing room has split into 3 groups
Squads form friendships and that is healthy; this is not that. 3 separate groups, 2 players belonging to none of them, and a set of tables at lunch that have stopped rearranging themselves. It very rarely fixes itself.
Squad9 Nov 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
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ilhan Fakili, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.28
A mark of 8.28 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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 Inter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
Inter supporters have found a favourite in Ilhan Fakili
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ilhan Fakili 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Eddy Bayramov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Inter.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.51, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
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 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Rahid Garayev
“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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A Inter teenager takes the young player award
Ilhan Fakili is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Ilhan Fakili at 20 — 7.99
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ilhan Fakili did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $3.5M sale of Orkhan Khalilzade
He is going to Qarabag, the club has $3.5M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market24 Aug 2026
Qarabag paid $3.5M 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.
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.
Squad24 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.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Inter supporters have found a favourite in Ilhan Fakili
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ilhan Fakili 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Gabala made Inter work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Inter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rufat Dadashov 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.