126 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AZAL lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AZAL can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Həbib Hüşənov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Juan Cámara 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“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 AZAL, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
133 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AZAL lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at AZAL, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AZAL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals in one match, Eddy Medvedev on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of AZAL and Khazar.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AZAL can pretend not to have heard.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
115 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AZAL lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 8 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. AZAL will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
134 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AZAL lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 AZAL, and it is not being withdrawn.
148 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AZAL lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AZAL can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AZAL have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Samir Mammadov 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Juan Cámara 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.
“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 AZAL, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Samir Mammadov 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. Rareş Bălan 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.
Position 8 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Samir Mammadov 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Juan Cámara 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at AZAL pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
1 for Samir Mammadov, marked 7.74, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AZAL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Samir Mammadov had AZAL level again within 2 minutes, and Zira never got to play with a lead at all.
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Eddy Medvedev takes the afternoon — 8.89
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eddy Medvedev provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 goals in one match, Eddy Medvedev on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of AZAL and Khazar.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Juan Cámara 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AZAL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Sumgayit go through and AZAL go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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.
Juan Cámara 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.
The phone has started ringing about Eddy Medvedev again, and this time the name on the line is Zamalek. AZAL are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AZAL can pretend not to have heard.
Samir Mammadov 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Juan Cámara 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.
The offer from Paralimni for Namig Huseynov 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.
Namig 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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at AZAL has been clear about where Renat Garayev stands, which is more than many ever get.
Add another name to the list: Paralimni have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Namig Huseynov. The answer from AZAL has not changed — yet.
Samir Mammadov 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. Rashad Ismayilov 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.