Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gabala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1 for Karol Mets, marked 7.77, 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.
Turan Manafov 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karol Mets 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Gabala has been clear about where Ramil Şeydayev stands, which is more than many ever get.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gabala have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gabala can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Karol Mets 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Giorgi Beridze at his very best
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gabala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dimitrij Jafarov is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
In brief
SquadKarol Mets has improved at 35, which nobody expected
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gabala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Karol Mets 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gabala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Beridze 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
SquadKarol Mets is playing like a man with something to prove
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gabala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Səlahət Ağayev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gabala the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 May 2028
Karol Mets 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Yaw Ackah has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Gabala have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
28 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Səlahət Ağayev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gabala the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Səlahət Ağayev has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Karol Mets 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
43 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
50 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.
Position 10 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Gabala they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Sambou Sissoko 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
SquadWords at Gabala training over how hard people work
73 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gabala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Day 13 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Gabala, and 0 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
94 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.
“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 Gabala, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gabala have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Sambou Sissoko 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno 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.
101 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.
He is going to Inter, 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Shafin Murtala has just signed for Gabala, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gabala can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gabala have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Sambou Sissoko 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
SquadWords at Gabala training over how hard people work
“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.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
A brace, and Marcus Forss takes the afternoon — 7.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcus Forss provided it, and the 7.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Sambou Sissoko 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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Gabala have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
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.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Bruno Silva
13 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Marcus Forss 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Gabala pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
11 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Sambou Sissoko 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus Forss 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.
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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
8 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.
Amin Ramazanov 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.
AZAL left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Sambou Sissoko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
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.
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 wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Gabala have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Marcus Forss 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.
“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 Gabala, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 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.
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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus Forss 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Gabala, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gabala, and both men came out saying it was fine.
14 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
5 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Amin Ramazanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gabala have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Inter for Marcus Forss was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Sambou Sissoko 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 watch every Gabala game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kapaz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Sambou Sissoko 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.
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.
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
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus Forss 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Agil Garayev 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eddy Mammadov 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus Forss 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
4 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gabala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Zira go through and Gabala go home, 2‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ismahil Akinade provided it, and the 7.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A first appearance Javid Ismayilov will want to forget — 5.71
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.71, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Marcus Forss 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gabala can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus Forss 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Rza Cəfərov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gabala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.48. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Gabala.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ismahil Akinade was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Marcus Forss'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.
14 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
10 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
In brief
The terracesThe press have found their man in Bruno Silva
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gabala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Sambou Sissoko 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus Forss 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Gabala can tell you which week it ends in.
9 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gabala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Marcus Forss 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gabala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Gabala, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 28 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gabala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gabala have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Marcus Forss 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gabala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcus Forss 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 Gabala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Adriel Ba Loua was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.93. 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.