Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rashad Dadashov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mustafa Ozan signs something — a contract at Inter or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
24 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
“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.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Khazar were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Mustafa Ozan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“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 9 say he has earned the hearing.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Kamran Jafarov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Inter have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
SquadWords at Inter training over how hard people work
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Richard Madatov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mustafa Ozan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Dimitrij Bayramov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Inter dressing room was either.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Gabala? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Nobody at Inter is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 15 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Inter lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Inter, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mustafa Ozan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
31 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 offer from Giresunspor for Kerem Yazici was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
AZAL did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $960.0K for Kerem Yazici, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Inter had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sport Recife, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Richard Madatov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Kerem Yazici from AZAL for $960.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
“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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Inter heard it as anything else.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mustafa Ozan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.