Renat Khalilzade 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.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
4 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Andereggen 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.
Orkhan 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamran Khalilzade 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.
Gabala next, and one man in the Inter dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Inter know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A brace, and Juan Cejas takes the afternoon — 8.58
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juan Cejas provided it, and the 8.58 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Andereggen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ethnikos Achnas, another week without a signature from Rafael Camacho.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Juan Cejas was the best thing in any of them.
Neneco 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.
Level with 93 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Ethnikos Achnas had all but put away. AEL will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Neneco
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Renat Khalilzade 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 had been thinking. Nicolás Andereggen 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Panagiotis Ioannou has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ethnikos Achnas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 24 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Ethnikos Achnas had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Minsk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Ethnikos Achnas offered $510.0K; AEL said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Renat Khalilzade 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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ethnikos Achnas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Inter is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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.
Inter have gone to Zira with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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 clubs have shaken hands with Apollon; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Aris is saying, and nobody at Ethnikos Achnas is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ethnikos Achnas 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 Nicolás Andereggen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Ermis have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mihail Angelos Marinescu. The answer from Ethnikos Achnas has not changed — yet.
Ethnikos Achnas have made the call to Inter. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Christos Loukaidis is 19, and Ethnikos Achnas have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Ethnikos Achnas will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
$75.0K settles it between the clubs for Nuğay Rəşidov
Gabala have accepted the money. What Inter do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer from Ravan for Samir Amirguliyev 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.60 for the rest of it.
Kerem Sinik 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.
$58.0K was the most the club would pay and Neftchi were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Orkhan Amirguliyev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rashad Madatov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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.
Qarabag did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $370.0K for Joni Montiel, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
$55.0K on the table at Gabala. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$18.0K on the table at Neftchi. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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: Joni Montiel from Qarabag for $370.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Add another name to the list: Dila have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Eddy Amirguliyev. The answer from Inter has not changed — yet.
The phone has started ringing about Renat Khalilzade again, and this time the name on the line is Dinamo Brest. Inter are listening politely and promising nothing.
$370.0K on the table at Qarabag. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Kerem Sinik 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Namig Khalilzade 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Inter, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Inter has been clear about where Eddy Ozobic stands, which is more than many ever get.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mahir Ismayilov signs something — a contract at Inter or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.