Marked for Vugar Dadashov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Khazar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 May 2027
Tempers go at Khazar
Shahriyar 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.
Squad31 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vugar Dadashov, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Squad
7 new faces, and Khazar are still learning each other
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Squad
Agil Sheydaev falls out with a teammate over standards
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Market
Qara Abdullayev returns from a loan that gave him nothing
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2027
Tempers go at Khazar
Tamkin 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Shahriyar Sheydaev 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.
Squad24 May 2027
32 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“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.
Loan watch26 Apr 2027
“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 Khazar, and 0 appearances in 35 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
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Squad
Vugar Dadashov has become a man the manager trusts
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2027
Richard Medvedev: 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.
Squad19 Apr 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Khazar know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 2027
Afran Dadashov damages knee ligaments — 49 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Khazar
Shahriyar 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hacıağa Hacılı 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.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
“I did not go to Kapaz to sit and watch. I want to come back to Khazar and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 7 matches say the rest.
Squad15 Mar 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market15 Mar 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Orkhan Madatov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2027
Afran Dadashov damages knee ligaments — 63 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 63 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Vugar Dadashov: 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.
Squad1 Mar 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Nov 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 Khazar can pretend not to have heard.
Match28 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Khazar's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Khazar has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Nov 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.
Match28 Nov 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Khazar make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Orkhan Madatov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.59. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Loan watch30 Nov 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 Khazar, and 0 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
Match28 Nov 2026
It needed Orkhan Madatov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Gabala, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Khazar
Shahriyar 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.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I watch every Khazar game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ethnikos Achnas runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Orkhan Madatov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.63. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match7 Nov 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Agil Sheydaev
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Khazar
Shahriyar 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Gabala left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 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.
Loan watch21 Sep 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 6 matches say the rest.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Vugar Dadashov dropped after a run of poor form
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 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 Khazar can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Orkhan Madatov commits to Khazar for another 2 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Khazar
Shahriyar 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Eddy Amirguliyev has come up in conversations Khazar were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vugar 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.