The Gabala Gazette
Squad21 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Hernán Rivero
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gabala lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Gabala
Ismahil Akinade 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Renaldo Cephas 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.
Boardroom21 Feb 2028
103% of the income goes out in wages at Gabala
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Loan watch21 Feb 2028
Prince Owusu counts the days
“I watch every Gabala 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Qara Madatov stays put
“The easiest signature of my career.” Qara Madatov and Gabala agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
- Market The Giorgos Athanasiadis story refuses to die
- Market Gabala put Məmməd Hüseynov up for sale
- Loan watch Andrés Molinas cannot get a game at Torpedo Kutaisi