Marked for Rahid Abdullayev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Inter
Vugar Ismayilov 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Matteo Colombara 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
The game went through Rahid Dadashov — 6.98
Marked 6.98 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Inter are still strangers to each other
6 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
It needed Vugar Mammadov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against AZAL, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Samir Jafarov was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Inter dressing room was either.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
10 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
$1.5M. No player has ever cost Inter more, and expectation arrives with him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Javid Abdullayev
15 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.
Market7 Sep 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 8 in, 1 out at Inter
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Inter asked and Zira said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$150.0K was the most the club would pay and Kapaz 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 terraces7 Sep 2026
The town asked, and Inter paid $1.5M
Vugar Ismayilov was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.5M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Inter
Vugar Ismayilov 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
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Inter lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Araz Medvedev at 20 — 7.80
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Araz Medvedev did not need any: 7.80, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The offer went to Kapaz this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Zira paid $69.0K 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zira have kept their man, and Inter go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Araz Medvedev. 1‑0 against Khazar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.