Marked for Cavid Garayev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Inter
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Inter is running low.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
Supporters turn on the $290.0K sale of Maksim Khalilzade
He is going to Khazar, the club has $290.0K 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Araz Ozobic is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad21 Jun 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 Inter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Maycon Cleiton has improved at 28, which nobody expected
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.
Market21 Jun 2027
Khazar paid $290.0K 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Inter training over how hard people work
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Market
Ravan are about to pick up the phone
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Market
Vugar Nazarov told to find a new club
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Market
Agil Nadirov slips out the side door
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
Ruslan Khalilzade damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Market12 Apr 2027
Agil Nadirov 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Inter
Cavid Garayev 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
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Kamran Sheydaev
39 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.
Market15 Mar 2027
Agil Nadirov 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Inter
Cavid Garayev 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
Uneasy
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market8 Mar 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Cavid Garayev commits to Inter for another 3 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Inter
Maycon Cleiton 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Inter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilhan Fakili 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“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.
In brief
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Market
A year gone for Eddy Huseynov
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Boardroom
Inter pull $185.4K back off the table
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Boardroom
Inter were not finished after all
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Inter
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Inter is running low.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Inter
Afran Abdullayev 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Ilhan Fakili 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.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
“I did not go to Qarabag to sit and watch. I want to come back to Inter and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 25 matches say the rest.
Market1 Feb 2027
JS Kabylie are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Inter will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market1 Feb 2027
The phone has started ringing about Bahlul Guseynov again, and this time the name on the line is Istanbulspor. Inter are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 2027
Inter say no — this time
The offer from Al-Wehda for Afran Abdullayev 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Inter may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market25 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Cavid Garayev again, and this time the name on the line is Ermis. Inter are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Inter
Ilhan Fakili 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Kapaz are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Inter will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Renato Nhaga 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.03, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market2 Nov 2026
Rashad Nadirov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Inter
Ilhan Fakili 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Three points for Inter, 2‑1 the final word against Khazar in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A month that belonged to Ilhan Fakili
The young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Inter who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Kapaz to sit and watch. I want to come back to Inter and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Cavid Nadirov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Cavid Nadirov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Inter have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Afran Abdullayev. Inter will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Sep 2026
“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.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Inter's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Inter has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Inter
Afran Abdullayev 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ilhan Fakili 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Neftchi left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Araz Ozobic gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
5 new faces, and Inter are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 9. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Inter's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Inter has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ilhan Fakili in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Inter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Afran Abdullayev 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Cavid Garayev at his very best
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Inter.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Afran Abdullayev at his very best
Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Inter.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I watch every Inter game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Qarabag runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match12 Sep 2026
Inter share the spoils with AZAL
A 2‑2 draw with AZAL leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Renato Nhaga is the weekend's best young player
At 19 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
There were 7 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Inter say no — this time
The offer from Shirak for Cavid Garayev 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The fee is $370.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Zira drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Cavid Garayev has come up in conversations Inter were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Afran Abdullayev 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 6.84 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Market24 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Inter will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Inter
Afran Abdullayev 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Inter
4 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Sumgayit left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market17 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Afran Mammadov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Renat Mammadov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Afran Bayramov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Deniz Yilmaz gets it from the manager
“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
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Inter say no — this time
The offer from Ethnikos Achnas for Cavid Garayev 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Afran Abdullayev 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Inter
Richard Ozobic 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Neftchi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tamkin Amirguliyev. The answer from Inter has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Javid Guseynov is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Inter has been clear about where Javid Guseynov stands, which is more than many ever get.