The AZAL Courier
Squad7 Sep 2026
Shahriyar Bayramov damages knee ligaments — 66 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 66 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Eddy Dadashov out for 105 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AZAL will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Sep 2026
Rahid Garayev 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 The request is on a desk at AZAL, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at AZAL until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Door shut on Rashad Ozobic
AZAL asked and Khazar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Deadline beats AZAL to Orkhan Mammadov
The clock did what Inter would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Maksim Madatov 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Timofey Dzyuba is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Timofey Dzyuba has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Xəyal Fərzullayev 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 Xəyal Fərzullayev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
- Market AZAL pick up Liam Jessop for nothing
- Market Cavid Ozobic leaves for nothing
- Market Shahriyar Sadygov leaves for nothing