“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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 7.03, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Bruno Silva 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
0‑4 to Sabah, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Mahir Ozobic left the room before anybody could ask which.
Neftchi left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Wanderson 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Turan Manafov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Veljko Simić’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Gabala needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Veljko Simić 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
Bruno Silva 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bruno Silva. 1‑0 against MOIK Baku, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.46 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mahir Ozobic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Gabala have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Amir Ebrahimzadeh 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Gabala are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Gabala now know that too.
Nobody at Gabala 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.
MOIK Baku next, and one man in the Gabala dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
0‑4 to Turan Tovuz, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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.
Amir Ebrahimzadeh 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 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 Gabala know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wanderson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
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.
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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Mahir Ozobic left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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 Turan Tovuz.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Namiq Ələsgərov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gabala know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Up for the corner, and Jaime Sierra delivers — 7.80
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jaime Sierra scored, was marked 7.80, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Veljko Simić 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
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.
6 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.
“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.
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.
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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The deal with Neftchi is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Anatoliy Nuriyev 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 Bruno Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Səlahət Ağayev 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Anatoliy Nuriyev is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Gabala have done the hard part with Rodina, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Veljko Simić 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Gabala and Qarabag in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amir Ebrahimzadeh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gabala asked and Neftchi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
5 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.53, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Gabala dressing room in a hurry
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.
Karvan made Gabala work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Wanderson 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.
8.15. 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.
7 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Imishli is saying, and nobody at Gabala is enjoying the guessing.
4 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.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Kapaz were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad16 Aug 2027
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dock Sud have kept their man, and Gabala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Cavid Khalilzade is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Amir Ebrahimzadeh 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 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Bruno Silva 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gabala can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Veljko Simić 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Progreso have kept their man, and Gabala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Gabala has been clear about where Mark Ojong stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adriel Ba Loua trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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, wages agreed, and Shimal waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Gabala is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Gabala have gone to Kapaz with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Veljko Simić 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Gabala have made the call to Ferro Carril Oeste. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Gabala 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.
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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Imishli keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gabala have made the call to Sporting Cristal. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all 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.
$130.0K on the table at Kapaz. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Santiago Morning have kept their man, and Gabala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
5 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Gabala will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gabala will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Veljko Simić 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 Bruno Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Unión de Santa Fe have kept their man, and Gabala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Şahin Şahniyarov has his answer from Gabala; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Gabala 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. Gabala will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Gabala is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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 Jun 2027
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wanderson 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 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 at Gabala 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Wanderson 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 Fərid İsgəndərov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Gabala has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
$460.0K was the most the club would pay and Qarabag were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.1M for Amir Ebrahimzadeh, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Gabala asked and Sabah said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Ebrahimzadeh 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.
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.
“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.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gabala lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 deal with Shafa is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Gabala offered $640.0K; Mingachevir said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gabala can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Veljko Simić 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.
15 games, 7 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Gabala now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
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.
Nobody at Gabala 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 Rza Cəfərov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Süleyman Damadayev has written the date down.
30 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Mikki van Sas 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Wanderson 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Adriel Ba Loua signs something — a contract at Gabala or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gabala will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gabala know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Paulinho is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas Hian trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Veljko Simić 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.
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.
Something was said to Mark Ojong and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fərid İsgəndərov 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 Nicat Əliyev is on it.
7 goals in 15 games at Jabrayil — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Gabala updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mark Ojong trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Rza Cəfərov has written the date down.
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wanderson 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.
Xəyal Fərzullayev 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.
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 Səlahət Ağayev has written the date down.
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.
“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.
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.
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 Süleyman Damadayev has written the date down.
Veljko Simić 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.
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.
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fərid İsgəndərov 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 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.
Veljko Simić 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Gabala are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Wanderson 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 will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Nobody at Gabala 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anatoliy Nuriyev signs something — a contract at Gabala or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
Mikki van Sas 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.
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.
“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.
Mikki van Sas 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 Fərid İsgəndərov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Veljko Simić 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Gabala are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Səlahət Ağayev, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wanderson 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.
7 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.
“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 Gabala know it.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gabala, another week without a signature from Səlahət Ağayev.
Market8 Mar 2027
Həbib Hüşənov returns from a loan that taught him nothing
0 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fərid İsgəndərov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Gabala 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gabala can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 0 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Gabala argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fərid İsgəndərov 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Gabala than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wanderson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Gabala game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Shafa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Veljko Simić 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.
Gabala asked and Colchester United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wanderson 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Isaac Amoah, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
7 new faces, and Gabala 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Gabala are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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 Paulinho is on it.
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.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Gabala are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Səlahət Ağayev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Nicat Əliyev is on it.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 25 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Gabala until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Gabala had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Londrina, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Mikki van Sas 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 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 Gabala know 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Wanderson 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Ismahil Akinade will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Gabala escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The offer from Tiszakécske for Ismahil Akinade 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.
“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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. São Paulo have kept their man, and Gabala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 21 say he has earned the hearing.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.69 for the rest of it.
The deal with Wycombe Wanderers is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
The fee is $220.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Sumgayit drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
8 goals in one match, Jaime Sierra on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Gabala and Qarabag.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pyunik have kept their man, and Gabala go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Wanderson has, at Gabala, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Gabala have done the hard part with Sumgayit, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Gabala had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Neftchi, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Jaime Sierra 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Turan Tovuz have kept their man, and Gabala 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 Wanderson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.60 for the rest of it.
Anatoliy Nuriyev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Neftchi have kept their man, and Gabala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. Araz-Nakhchivan had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
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.
“I watch every Gabala game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Shafa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mahir Ozobic after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
Eduardo Kunde 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mahir Ozobic on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Veljko Simić 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anatoliy Nuriyev signs something — a contract at Gabala or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Eduardo Kunde
“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.
Peter Kings 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Anatoliy Nuriyev is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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 will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gabala can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“I watch every Gabala game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Shafa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mahir Ozobic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fərid İsgəndərov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Nicat Əliyev is on it.
Veljko Simić 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Gabala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fərid İsgəndərov 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sumgayit in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anatoliy Nuriyev signs something — a contract at Gabala or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Gabala. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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.
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.
The dugout9 Nov 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.” Mahir Ozobic chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fərid İsgəndərov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
“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 9 say he has earned the hearing.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ismahil Akinade is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Mahir Ozobic, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutIsaac Amoah is still being punished for one mistake
Veljko Simić 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 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 Gabala know it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Səlahət Ağayev'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.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fərid İsgəndərov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Gabala is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gabala told Ítalo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout19 Oct 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.” Mahir Ozobic chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
Looking aheadGabala take on the side everybody is chasing
“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.
10 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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Ismahil Akinade has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Turan Tovuz in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Adriel Ba Loua signs something — a contract at Gabala or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
3 goals in 4 games at Jabrayil — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Gabala updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Şahin Şahniyarov has written the date down.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Gabala scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ismahil Akinade. 3‑2 against Araz-Nakhchivan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 9.50 — 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gabala can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ítalo 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.
Veljko Simić 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Gabala and Zira in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Səlahət Ağayev's mistake
Player ratingsBruno Silva beats them one at a time
Veljko Simić 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Zira in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anatoliy Nuriyev signs something — a contract at Gabala or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Gabala is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
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 Adriel Ba Loua has written the date down.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Ramil Şeydayev had Gabala level again within 3 minutes, and Neftchi never got to play with a lead at all.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Nürnberg keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monte Azul have kept their man, and Gabala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Bruno Silva is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Gabala 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Neftchi in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.82, and 2 involvements.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wycombe Wanderers have kept their man, and Gabala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Süleyman Damadayev 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Gabala will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mahir Ozobic after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Mingachevir 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 Gabala, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Brasil de Pelotas is saying, and nobody at Gabala is enjoying the guessing.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $310.0K has been paid because Namiq Ələsgərov is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Peter Kings is living that version at Gabala, and it tends to show in the first month.
Gabala asked and Red Bull Salzburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
7.81, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Gabala asked and Athletico Paranaense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Gabala will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
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.
Gabala have made the call to Brasil de Pelotas. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Mahir Ozobic, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Coritiba keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Veljko Simić 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Orkhan Medvedev 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ruslan Khalilzade 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Maksim Dadashov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Gabala know which stage they are at.
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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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Gabala are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mark Ojong has, at Gabala, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The offer from Shafa for Həbib Hüşənov 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.
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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gabala can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The name of Prince Owusu has come up in conversations Gabala were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gabala, another week without a signature from Veljko Simić.
A loan enquiry to Athletico Paranaense: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.