From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Eddy Khalilzade
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Khazar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Araz Nazarov out for 55 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Khazar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market8 Feb 2027
So close: Renat Ozobic’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Zira moved on, Renat Ozobic reports back to Khazar, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Market8 Feb 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Khazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Khazar
Guglielmo Mignani 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Khazar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joni Montiel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cavid Medvedev, and the manager let it.
Market8 Feb 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Richard Ismayilov signs something — a contract at Khazar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Eddy Khalilzade
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Khazar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad1 Feb 2027
64 days out for Araz Nazarov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Khazar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market1 Feb 2027
Renat Ozobic hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Khazar can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
Cavid Medvedev: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Khazar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Khazar 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
Add another name to the list: Zira have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Renat Ozobic. The answer from Khazar has not changed — yet.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Alexander Gonzáles has, at Khazar, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad1 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jan 2027
Araz Nazarov breaks a bone — 71 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market25 Jan 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Khazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Khazar
Guglielmo Mignani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Marcel Juszczak arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Marcel Juszczak has, at Khazar, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Khazar 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.
Loan watch25 Jan 2027
“I watch every Khazar game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sumgayit runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Khazar have made the call to Inter. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
A loan move for Araz Dadashov is in the works
Khazar have made the call to Inter. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Khazar are still strangers to each other
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Araz Nazarov out for 79 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Khazar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market18 Jan 2027
Flora come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Khazar did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Khazar
Guglielmo Mignani 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Joni Montiel 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kapaz have kept their man, and Khazar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to River Plate: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad18 Jan 2027
No place for Tom Edwards in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Khazar are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Martino Marino knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Martino Marino trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market18 Jan 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Araz Nazarov breaks a bone — 88 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Sumgayit; Khazar go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Sumgayit, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Khazar
Guglielmo Mignani 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Javid Garayev has left for Ravan in a $170.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Khazar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joni Montiel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Martino Marino knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Khazar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
95 days out for Araz Nazarov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Khazar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market4 Jan 2027
Renat Ozobic hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Khazar can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Jan 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Khazar will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Neftchi have kept their man, and Khazar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Khazar
Ruslan Ozobic and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Sumgayit have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Sumgayit: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Samir Madatov moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Khazar than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Market4 Jan 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Kamran Mammadov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Khazar.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Araz Nazarov out for 103 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Khazar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Khazar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vüqar Mustafayev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Khazar
Guglielmo Mignani 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Vüqar Mustafayev 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Javid Nadirov
“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.
Match21 Dec 2026
Khazar have something to play for
Position 6 on 23 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Market21 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mahir Khalilzade’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Dec 2026
The season ends: position 6 for Khazar
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 23 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Market14 Dec 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Khazar can pretend not to have heard.
Match12 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Khazar
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Khazar
Guglielmo Mignani 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Zira take the points off Khazar
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Samir Madatov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Samir Madatov did the work nobody counts — 6.91
10 combined actions and 6.91. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Qara Ismayilov to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tamkin Ramazanov
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Khazar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match2 Dec 2026
Khazar out of the cup
Inter ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match5 Dec 2026
4 matches without a win for Khazar
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Khazar are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Khazar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vüqar Mustafayev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Qara Medvedev
“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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
Tamkin Ramazanov damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rufat Garayev commits to Khazar for another 3 years.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Khazar
Guglielmo Mignani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vüqar Mustafayev 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rufat Ozobic, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Rufat Garayev
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 dugout30 Nov 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Khazar told Ruslan Sheydaev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tamkin Ramazanov
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Khazar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Nov 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Khazar
Guglielmo Mignani 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Sumgayit left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Qara Ismayilov to a room that had heard them before.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Khazar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samir Huseynov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
Market23 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Martino Marino signs something — a contract at Khazar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tamkin Ramazanov
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Khazar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Vüqar Mustafayev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Ravan made Khazar work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Guglielmo Mignani was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Khazar
Ruslan Ozobic 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Qara Ismayilov kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Rufat Garayev knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rufat Garayev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tamkin Ramazanov damages knee ligaments — 46 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
0‑5 to Qarabag, 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Khazar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vüqar Mustafayev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Khazar
Ruslan Ozobic and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Khazar dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I watch every Khazar game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sumgayit runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑5, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 5 saves does not settle it either way.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Khazar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match31 Oct 2026
Khazar are at home on the road
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Khazar
Guglielmo Mignani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match31 Oct 2026
Inter made Khazar work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad2 Nov 2026
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.88 on the card, and the Khazar support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
16 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
-
Player ratings
Martino Marino shuts the door
-
Looking ahead
A test against the best for Khazar
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tamkin Ramazanov damages knee ligaments — 61 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
Market26 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Khazar can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Joni Montiel pops up at the right end — 7.85
7.85, 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Khazar
Guglielmo Mignani 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Khazar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vüqar Mustafayev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tamkin Ramazanov
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Khazar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ernest Ofori breaks a bone — 19 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Oct 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market19 Oct 2026
“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 Khazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Khazar
Guglielmo Mignani 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Khazar keep winning on the road
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Match17 Oct 2026
AZAL made Khazar work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.36, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tamkin Ramazanov
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Khazar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match10 Oct 2026
Nowhere to hide for Khazar
0‑4 against Zira, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Ernest Ofori out for 26 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Khazar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Oct 2026
There were 7 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 ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Qara Medvedev, and the manager let it.
Match12 Oct 2026
The half-term report on Khazar
Position 6, 13 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
Doors closed at Khazar
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tamkin Ramazanov damages knee ligaments — 84 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 84 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ernest Ofori breaks a bone — 33 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Khazar
Guglielmo Mignani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Vüqar Mustafayev 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Khazar against Neftchi
1‑2 to Neftchi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match3 Oct 2026
No time for Neftchi to settle
The goal that put Neftchi ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Khazar equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Qara Ismayilov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Javid Garayev, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
91 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Khazar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Ernest Ofori out for 40 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Khazar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.08 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match28 Sep 2026
Khazar are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 13 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Market28 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Vüqar Mustafayev 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Three points for Khazar, 2‑1 the final word against Gabala in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Both jobs done by Joni Montiel — 7.53
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. 12 actions, 7.53, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tamkin Ramazanov
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Khazar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match19 Sep 2026
0‑3 to Sumgayit, 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
48 days out for Ernest Ofori after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Khazar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Khazar dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Khazar
Ruslan Ozobic 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Samir Huseynov 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tamkin Ramazanov damages knee ligaments — 106 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 106 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
No mercy from Khazar
Ravan will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Khazar were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Emin Medvedev breaks a bone — 19 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Renat Ozobic, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Vüqar Mustafayev
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Khazar will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.75, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.99, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Samir Madatov at his very best
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Khazar.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Sumgayit to sit and watch. I want to come back to Khazar and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
113 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Khazar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match5 Sep 2026
Nowhere to hide for Khazar
0‑4 against Qarabag, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Emin Medvedev breaks a bone — 27 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Khazar can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 5 in, 1 out at Khazar
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Khazar had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Alashkert, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market7 Sep 2026
The Gabala deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Cavid Medvedev reports back to Khazar with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Khazar
Guglielmo Mignani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Joni Montiel falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
120 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Khazar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Emin Medvedev out for 34 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Khazar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The offer went to Qarabag this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The deal with Alashkert 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Khazar have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Cavid Dadashov pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad24 Aug 2026
129 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Khazar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Khazar have gone to Zira 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Khazar pay Qarabag $370.0K for a proper upgrade
Qarabag did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $370.0K for Joni Montiel, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Khazar had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Batumi, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
The town asked, and Khazar paid $370.0K
Joni Montiel was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $370.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Vüqar Mustafayev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad17 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tamkin Ramazanov
137 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Khazar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match15 Aug 2026
5‑1, and Cavid Medvedev took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Khazar tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$370.0K settles it between the clubs for Joni Montiel
Qarabag have accepted the money. What Khazar do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Rufat Bayramov pops up at the right end — 7.85
7.85, 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
6 goals as Khazar and AZAL go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Khazar and AZAL, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Khazar
2 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Khazar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vüqar Mustafayev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tamkin Ramazanov damages knee ligaments — 144 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 144 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Inter wanted more than $1.0M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mahir Khalilzade and Khazar agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Martino Marino 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Khazar
Ruslan Ozobic 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 dugout10 Aug 2026
“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.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Martino Marino asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Khazar has been clear about where Rufat Khalilzade stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Khazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vüqar Mustafayev 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Khazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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. Khazar will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Benevento have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
AZAL have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Khazar, and both men came out saying it was fine.