The Neftchi Sentinel
Market10 Aug 2026
Lokomotivi come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Neftchi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Door shut on Ibrahima Wadji
Neftchi asked and Turan Tovuz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Aug 2026
Eyes on Jordan Rezabala again
The phone has started ringing about Jordan Rezabala again, and this time the name on the line is Zagatala. Neftchi are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market10 Aug 2026
Araz Abdullayev steps up from the Neftchi academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Araz 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Dimitrij Ismayilov joins the Neftchi first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dimitrij Ismayilov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Neftchi are still strangers to each other
8 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The formation has left Alassane Coulibaly behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Neftchi will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Neftchi try to borrow Gui Negão
Corinthians have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Ľubomír Tupta asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
In brief
- Squad A season on the outside for Andreaw Gravillon
- Squad A wage question at Neftchi
- Looking ahead Neftchi host Shamakhi