Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AEL is saying, and nobody at Sumgayit is enjoying the guessing.
Nicolas Schulz 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sumgayit can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Sumgayit training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cəlal Hüseynov 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.
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 Nihat Əhmədzadə is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nihat Əhmədzadə trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Sumgayit training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diogo Almeida 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sumgayit this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Aleksa Janković is on it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sumgayit have done the hard part with Bragantino, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diogo Almeida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Trésor Mossi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Sumgayit 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Sumgayit has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Sumgayit had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sumgayit can pretend not to have heard.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
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 Jeimes is on it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sumgayit is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Diogo Almeida 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sumgayit this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Sumgayit 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolas Schulz trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Rachid Moumini has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Diogo Almeida 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.
Nicolas Schulz 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 board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Squad6 Mar 2028
6 new faces, and Sumgayit are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jeimes 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sumgayit, another week without a signature from Trésor Mossi.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolas Schulz trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and DIFAI Agsu waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sumgayit is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have shaken hands with MOIK Baku; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sumgayit can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Sumgayit close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ferroviária is saying, and nobody at Sumgayit is enjoying the guessing.
The chase for Nasko Milev ended with $120.0K changing hands and Turan Tovuz out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Turan Tovuz have kept their man, and Sumgayit go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“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 Sumgayit, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cédric Badolo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mahir Bayramov after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Nicolas Schulz 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ronaldo Vásquez. 1‑0 against Karvan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Cédric Badolo 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mahir Bayramov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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 Aleksa Janković is on it.
Neftchi next, and one man in the Sumgayit dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ronaldo Vásquez. 3‑2 against Imishli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nicolas Schulz 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Sumgayit training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cédric Badolo 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tiago Almeida trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Qarabag.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sumgayit are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Emil Balayev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sumgayit needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“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 Sumgayit, and it is not being withdrawn.
Diogo Almeida 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Sumgayit training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Masaki Murata 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.
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 Aleksa Janković is on it.
In brief
The dugoutEmil Balayev knocks on the manager’s door
Sumgayit paid $50.0K and Neftchi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Neftchi know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Denzel Jubitana signs something — a contract at Neftchi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ľubomír Tupta has written the date down.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Neftchi would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Andrey Santos 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolas Schulz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sumgayit have made the call to Ferroviário. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Sumgayit know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Neftchi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He is going to Araz-Nakhchivan, the club has $1.3M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Neftchi can pretend not to have heard.
Araz-Nakhchivan pay $1.3M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Neftchi asked and La Equidad 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 enquiry everybody at Neftchi was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
Kauã 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.
Sumgayit and Neftchi have settled on $50.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“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 Sumgayit, and it is not being withdrawn.
Imishli did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $150.0K for Diogo Almeida, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shafa have kept their man, and Sumgayit go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Masaki Murata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sumgayit know it.
Nicolas Schulz 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Neftchi can pretend not to have heard.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Araz-Nakhchivan will make the call about Bassala Sambou this week. Neftchi have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Neftchi has been clear about where Emil Səfərov stands, which is more than many ever get.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Murad Xaçayev 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.
Nobody at Neftchi 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Imad Faraj trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
1 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
Neftchi have made Emil Səfərov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout31 May 2027
Emil Balayev is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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 Freddy Vargas is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Neftchi. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bassala Sambou signs something — a contract at Neftchi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Neftchi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Neftchi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Vincent Aboubakar is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Klismahn trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 5, 35 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Neftchi. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Neftchi can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neftchi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Neftchi 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Neftchi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Imad Faraj signs something — a contract at Neftchi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Nobody at Neftchi 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Neftchi have no good answer.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Neftchi know it.
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 Vincent Aboubakar is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Neftchi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Imad Faraj signs something — a contract at Neftchi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Neftchi would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Position 5, 35 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Telavi had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 Neftchi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. João Villela has just signed for Neftchi, and for once the answer mattered.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Neftchi has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Imad Faraj signs something — a contract at Neftchi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Neftchi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
0‑0 against Hammarby, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Neftchi pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Qarabag.
Qarabag next, and one man in the Neftchi dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 103th minute. Kapaz will replay every second of the added time for a week.
1 for Ifeanyi Mathew, marked 7.56, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vincent Aboubakar. 2‑0 against Shamakhi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kenan Pirić, and the manager let it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Moustapha Seck was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Samir Nadirov kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Murad Xaçayev 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.
Nobody at Neftchi 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Imad Faraj signs something — a contract at Neftchi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tiago Recife trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
2‑1 against Alverca, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Emin Mahmudov was at the centre of the description.
Vincent Aboubakar 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.
Position 6, 15 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Neftchi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
1‑3 against Alverca, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Kapaz made Neftchi work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Samir Nadirov kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Tiago Recife will call it something else in private.
Nobody at Neftchi 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. Neftchi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.55 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vincent Aboubakar. 3‑1 against Gabala, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Samir Nadirov kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
8 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Emil Balayev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Neftchi needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Neftchi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Samir Nadirov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Igor Ribeiro's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.