Ruslan Sheydaev

Left Back - Khazar
17 Jan 2027
Sunday
Process

Marked for Ruslan Sheydaev

17 Edition

The Khazar Gazette

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

11 saves: Mahir Bayramov was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Market

Eddy Mammadov hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Khazar can pretend not to have heard.

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.

Match

The goals have deserted Khazar

4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Khazar can tell you which week it ends in.

Squad

Tempers go at Khazar

Mahir Bayramov 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.

Match

Khazar come up short against Sumgayit

Sumgayit left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

Qara Nazarov faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Qara Nazarov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

Squad

A row about effort at Khazar

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitrij Amirguliyev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Samir Jafarov

“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.

In brief

Back issues
6 Edition

The Khazar Gazette

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Samir Bayramov puts it in writing

“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 The request is on a desk at Khazar, and it is not being withdrawn.

Boardroom

Khazar close the window on a squad of their own making

7 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.

Transfer targets

Khazar bid $1.2M for Eldar Kuliev

The offer went to Zira 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Khazar

Conor Masterson 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.

Match

Khazar come up short against Qarabag

Qarabag left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Filippo Alessio

Khazar asked and Vicenza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

The dugout

No hiding place for Conor Masterson

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Conor Masterson, and the manager let it.

Squad

Conor Masterson has outgrown this division

There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Khazar know it, and so does everybody who watches him.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Qara Nazarov to a room that had heard them before.

In brief