Marked for Rufat Medvedev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and AZAL waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Inter is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inter can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Loris Armati gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Loris Armati has just signed for Inter, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The deal with Ravan is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Inter
Rodolfo Potiguar 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gabriel Castillo and Inter agree another 3 years.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Ayaz Guliev 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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Marcus Uberaba
“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.
Market11 Jan 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Inter, another week without a signature from Matty Virtue.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match19 Dec 2026
Inter taken apart
0‑3 to Neftchi, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Orkhan Nadirov and Inter agree another 3 years.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Inter dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Tamkin Guseynov
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Paulo Roberto asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market21 Dec 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Inter know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Edvin Kuč left out for tactical reasons at Inter
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Inter
Rahid Huseynov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Oct 2026
It needed Rahid Dadashov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Qarabag, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 29 he has taken a place rather than been given one, and somebody else has to find something to say about it. Inter have a decision that made itself.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Inter will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Marcus Uberaba arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Marcus Uberaba has, at Inter, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market7 Sep 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 9 in, 2 out at Inter
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Rufat Medvedev to AZAL has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Inter with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Inter have gone to Qarabag with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ayaz Guliev in a row with a teammate
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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Zira wanted more than $40.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Inter will try again when the window opens; Neftchi may not be selling by then.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Inter have gone to Neftchi with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
$150.0K on the table at Neftchi. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Inter
Javid Dadashov 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Eddy Nazarov again, and this time the name on the line is Atyrau. Inter are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ayaz Guliev 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ayaz Guliev 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. Inter know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The formation has left Alan Caruaru behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Inter will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Inter, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Inter, another week without a signature from Alan Caruaru.