104 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.
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.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hacıağa Hacılı, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mahir Guseynov 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.
9 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AZAL can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kleandro Kleandro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. AZAL know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Position 10, 1 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
136 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Khazar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 8 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cəlal Hüseynov 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.
Position 8 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
Marked 8.25 — 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hacıağa Hacılı 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Sumgayit had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AZAL lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AZAL will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
AZAL are taken apart by Sumgayit — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-4. 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ardijan Chilafi has just signed for AZAL, and for once the answer mattered.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.