Cəlal Hüseynov 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.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Richard Abdullayev signs something — a contract at Khazar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
0‑3 to Zira, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Position 7 on 20 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Eddy Ismayilov after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Khazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
Khazar are taken apart by Inter — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-10. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
The stands have turned
“Enough is enough. We have watched this for months.” 6 of the 29 senior players walked off to it, and the message was not aimed at any one of them.
Cəlal Hüseynov 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.
Match2 Dec 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Khazar and Inter in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Qara Khalilzade was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑5 to Qarabag, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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 Khazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Caner Under 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 Vugar Amirguliyev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Eddy Ismayilov after 0‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ravan in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
2‑5 to Inter, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Cəlal Hüseynov 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Khazar and Inter in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Shahriyar Abdullayev has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A performance of 8.79 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Qara 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Eddy Ismayilov on a 4‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Khazar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
“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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vugar Amirguliyev 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Eddy Ismayilov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad21 Sep 2026
6 new faces, and Khazar 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rahid Garayev signs something — a contract at Khazar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Qara Khalilzade had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 Khazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Tamkin 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.
Khazar ran out of time with Inter. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Successful dribbles: 37. 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.
Khazar and Zira have settled on $11.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Khazar offered $600.0K; AZAL 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.
Khazar asked and Ravan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Richard Mammadov 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Shahriyar Abdullayev has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.