Marked for Ehtiram Şahverdiyev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Oct 2027
The wait goes on for Kapaz
12 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
The goals have deserted Kapaz
12 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Kapaz can tell you which week it ends in.
Match18 Oct 2027
Kapaz sink to position 9
6 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Kapaz
Ramil Şeydayev 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Pachu 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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Marked 7.22. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
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.
Match16 Oct 2027
Point won or two lost for Kapaz?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Gabala? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Oct 2027
The wait goes on for Kapaz
10 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.
Match2 Oct 2027
The goals have deserted Kapaz
10 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Kapaz can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kapaz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luis Blanco and Kapaz agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Pachu 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 Kapaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kapaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
Graduation day at Kapaz
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad16 Aug 2027
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Kapaz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pachu 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
One of our own: Qara Nazarov joins the Kapaz first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Qara Nazarov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market16 Aug 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bahlul Guseynov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market16 Aug 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Maksim Ismayilov 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bahlul Ramazanov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
Kapaz board go back on their word
Something was promised, a deadline passed, and it did not arrive. Trust inside a football club is built over years and spent in an afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
Bendrix Parra damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kapaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Ehtiram Şahverdiyev has improved at 30, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 May 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Tempers go at Kapaz
Ramil Şeydayev 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Pachu 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kapaz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kapaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Kapaz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pachu 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Kapaz
Pachu 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Kapaz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javid Guseynov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Kapaz
Ramil Şeydayev 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 Apr 2027
Pachu 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kapaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Kapaz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pachu 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.
In brief
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Market
The Pachu story refuses to die
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Squad
Elcan Əbilov has become a man the manager trusts
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Pachu 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 Kapaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dimitrij Nazarov is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kapaz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market22 Mar 2027
“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 Kapaz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kapaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 2027
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kapaz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Kapaz
Ramil Şeydayev 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Pachu 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Mar 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ramil Şeydayev and Kapaz agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Kapaz
Pachu 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Kapaz training over how hard people work
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Market
The Pachu story refuses to die
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Market
The shop window has Javid Guseynov in it
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 84 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Kapaz
Ramil Şeydayev 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Pachu 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kapaz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Kapaz
Pachu 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Kapaz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adama Fofana 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kapaz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market15 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Pachu 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 Kapaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Pachu 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 Kapaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
Kapaz come up short against Zira
Zira left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad31 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 10. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.