Marked for Agil Khalilzade
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
86 days out for Mateo Carrizo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Khazar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match12 Apr 2027
Khazar sink to position 8
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market12 Apr 2027
Only the photograph left for Renat Garayev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Renat Garayev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Khazar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Apr 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 Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Khazar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cəlal Hüseynov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Apr 2027
At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
93 days out for Mateo Carrizo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Khazar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market5 Apr 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Bruno signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bruno commits to Khazar for another 2 years.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Khazar
Maksim Amirguliyev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Khazar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cəlal Hüseynov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Anatoly Mamonov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Khazar will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Khazar
Maksim Amirguliyev 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Cəlal Hüseynov 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
16 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.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Khazar, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Richard Jafarov out for 83 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Khazar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match15 Feb 2027
Khazar sink to position 8
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market15 Feb 2027
Only the photograph left for Renat Garayev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Renat Garayev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Khazar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Feb 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 Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Cəlal Hüseynov 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.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juventude have kept their man, and Khazar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Khazar, and 0 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Market15 Feb 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rufat Guseynov signs something — a contract at Khazar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Inter 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mahir Guseynov commits to Khazar for another 3 years.
Squad10 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 Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Neftchi wanted more than $170.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Richard 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Khazar know which stage they are at.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Mahir Guseynov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mahir Guseynov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market10 Aug 2026
Khazar have made Agil Khalilzade available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.