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.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AZAL lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadir Orucov 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.
“I watch every AZAL game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sumgayit runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Orkhan Nazarov signs something — a contract at AZAL or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutAgil Ramazanov asks for a word with the manager
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.
26 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
33 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.
Position 8 and 15 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.
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.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AZAL lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rashad Ismayilov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at AZAL 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.
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.
48 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AZAL is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AZAL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at AZAL no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
26 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nadir Orucov 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.
Samir Ramazanov 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.
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 dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Eddy Ozobic left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rashad Ismayilov is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Gabala in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.