Moses Mulee

Attacking Midfielder (L) - Free Agent
17 Mar 2033
Thursday
Process

Marked for Moses Mulee

282 Edition

The Shamakhi Herald

22 Dec 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Shamakhi refuse to drop out of the race

Position 3, 28 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.

Match

No end in sight to Shamakhi's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shamakhi has to find a result from somewhere.

The dugout

Agil Amirguliyev says Shamakhi went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Moses Mulee hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shamakhi can pretend not to have heard.

Boardroom

Belts tighten at Shamakhi

The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.

Match

Shamakhi come up short against Karvan

Karvan left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

Flavio Da Silva 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Shamakhi

Cayon Hanson 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 dugout

Ricardo Fernandes gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

Back issues
281 Edition

The Shamakhi Herald

15 Dec 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

The run at home goes on for Shamakhi

11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

Match

4 matches without a win for Shamakhi

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Shamakhi are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Tempers go at Shamakhi

Geovane 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.

Squad

Words at Shamakhi training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Flavio Da Silva 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.

The dugout

No hiding place for Zsombor Gamauf

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zsombor Gamauf, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Geovane gets picked when it counts

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 Geovane is on it.

The dugout

Interim Coach: “We have to be better”

“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.

Market

Talks stall between Shamakhi and Cayon Hanson

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

The dugout

Diogo Madaleno 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 Diogo Madaleno trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

259 Edition

The Shamakhi Herald

14 Jul 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Natanael Ferreira damages knee ligaments — 107 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 107 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.

Market

Kilyan Jusseron-Veniere hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shamakhi can pretend not to have heard.

Transfer targets

Failed medical for Antoine Kerriou

The deal with Neftchi died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.

Market

Sorriso is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shamakhi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Wandson 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.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Etien Botonjić is in the works

Shamakhi have made the call to Sabah. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

Transfer targets

Shamakhi ask about Sinan Bayindir

A loan enquiry to SV Ried: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

Squad

Moses Mulee 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 Shamakhi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Talks stall between Shamakhi and Tennai Watson

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

In brief

252 Edition

The Shamakhi Herald

26 May 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Ricardo Fernandes

52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shamakhi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Agil Amirguliyev is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shamakhi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A row about effort at Shamakhi

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wandson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Words exchanged at Shamakhi

Moses Mulee 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.

Squad

Agil Abdullayev signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Agil Abdullayev commits to Shamakhi for another 3 years.

The dugout

Flavio Da Silva gets picked when it counts

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 Flavio Da Silva is on it.

Boardroom

Shamakhi can only buy what they sell

Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.

Market

Experience through the door at Shamakhi

Milver Aquino arrives at 35 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.

Market

The Rüfat Abbasov story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rüfat Abbasov signs something — a contract at Shamakhi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief