Marked for Shahriyar Bayramov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
Shahriyar Bayramov damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to AZAL's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AZAL has to find a result from somewhere.
Match17 Oct 2026
AZAL taken apart
0‑3 to Sumgayit, 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted AZAL
8 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Hrayr Mkoyan 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 AZAL this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the AZAL 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
AZAL are still strangers to each other
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at AZAL
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dimitrij Nazarov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
27 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at AZAL
Hrayr Mkoyan 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Squad12 Oct 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 AZAL know which stage they are at.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Ardijan Chilafi
“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.
Market12 Oct 2026
AZAL bring in an old head
Rodrigo Dantas is 37 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Xəyal Fərzullayev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AZAL needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market12 Oct 2026
Nobody at AZAL has picked up the phone to Liam Jessop
11 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Market12 Oct 2026
AZAL have made Javid Guseynov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
Shahriyar Bayramov damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for AZAL
8 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted AZAL
7 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fernando Boldrin and AZAL agree another 1 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at AZAL
Hrayr Mkoyan 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.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“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 AZAL, and 1 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ravan take the points off AZAL
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at AZAL
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad28 Sep 2026
44 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
AZAL taken apart
0‑3 to Qarabag, 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Eddy Dadashov out for 82 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.
Match28 Sep 2026
Every point is an argument now for AZAL
Position 9 and 1 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to AZAL's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AZAL has to find a result from somewhere.
Match26 Sep 2026
The goals have deserted AZAL
6 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
AZAL leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at AZAL
Rahid 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
51 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Eddy Dadashov breaks a bone — 90 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Sep 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match19 Sep 2026
6 matches without a win for AZAL
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around AZAL are no longer polite ones.
Match19 Sep 2026
5 matches without a goal for AZAL
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match19 Sep 2026
AZAL are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match19 Sep 2026
Inter take the points off AZAL
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at AZAL
Rahid Ramazanov 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.
The dugout21 Sep 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 0‑2 Tamkin Abdullayev left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match9 Sep 2026
AZAL out of the cup
Sumgayit ended it 0‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad14 Sep 2026
97 days out for Eddy Dadashov after a fracture
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to AZAL's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at AZAL has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ardijan Chilafi gets the move he always wanted
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a goal for AZAL
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
AZAL are shipping goals 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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
“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
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
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
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
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
73 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Eddy Dadashov breaks a bone — 113 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 113 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match29 Aug 2026
A hiding for AZAL
Beaten 0‑4 by Neftchi, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AZAL can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AZAL have done the hard part with Inter, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Mahir Ramazanov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market31 Aug 2026
The fee is $280.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Sumgayit drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Transfer targets31 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
81 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Eddy Dadashov breaks a bone — 120 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 120 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Qarabag have kept their man, and AZAL go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at AZAL
Rahid Ramazanov 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
AZAL come up short against Zira
Zira left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad24 Aug 2026
28 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Tamkin Abdullayev to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
88 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
127 days out for Eddy Dadashov after a fracture
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Zira is saying, and nobody at AZAL is enjoying the guessing.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at AZAL
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
AZAL asked and Qarabag said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at AZAL
Rahid Ramazanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market17 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tamkin Abdullayev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market17 Aug 2026
One of our own: Tamkin Nazarov joins the AZAL first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Tamkin Nazarov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
95 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
134 days out for Eddy Dadashov after a fracture
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Zira come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AZAL did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Zira, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sumgayit keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mahir Ramazanov and AZAL agree another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at AZAL
Timofey Dzyuba 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mahir Ramazanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.