Araz Ismayilov

Left Midfielder - Free Agent
9 Oct 2027
Saturday
Process

Marked for Araz Ismayilov

61 Edition

The Khazar Gazette

27 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Agil Nadirov

39 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.

Squad

Cəlal Hüseynov: 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.

Match

The wait goes on for Khazar

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.

Squad

Tempers go at Khazar

Erkan Ozan 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.

Squad

Rashad Jafarov 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 ratings

A masterclass from Rashad Jafarov

Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

Match

Rashad Jafarov answers Gabala immediately

Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Rashad Jafarov had Khazar level again within 1 minutes, and Gabala never got to play with a lead at all.

Player ratings

Both jobs done by Daniel Tarazona — 7.66

A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.66, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.

Player ratings

Orkhan Nadirov runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

In brief