Emin Mahmudov 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Falaye Sacko 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.
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 Elvin Bədəlov is on it.
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.
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.
Neftchi asked and Salyut said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
6 new faces, and Neftchi 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Neftchi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Neftchi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Kenan Pirić 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 Falaye Sacko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Renat Abdullayev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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 Kenan Pirić is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Neftchi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
That is the business done at Neftchi 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.
Words at Neftchi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Esin Hakaj 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Manuel Haas 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Falaye Sacko signs something — a contract at Neftchi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neftchi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Neftchi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ifeanyi Mathew 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.
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.
Add another name to the list: Gabala have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Bassala Sambou. The answer from Neftchi has not changed — yet.
The deal with Vicenza 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.
Kenan Pirić 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rahid Garayev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Nobody at Neftchi 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Neftchi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Esin Hakaj 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Neftchi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Emin Mahmudov 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Neftchi has been clear about where Imad Faraj stands, which is more than many ever get.
Something was said to Sessi D'Almeida and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Denzel Jubitana has come out of that comparison in the side, and Neftchi have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Emin Mahmudov 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Neftchi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ifeanyi Mathew is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Denzel Jubitana signs something — a contract at Neftchi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
In brief
The dugoutIgor Ribeiro knocks on the manager's door
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Amin Ramazanov is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Words at Neftchi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Esin Hakaj 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Neftchi 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 Bassala Sambou is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Neftchi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Neftchi would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Neftchi, another week without a signature from Manuel Haas.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Emil Balayev a promise
Kenan Pirić 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 Ifeanyi Mathew was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dimitrij Khalilzade 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.
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.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.54 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Rahid Dadashov scored in the 86th minute, Sumgayit had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Neftchi took the lot.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Neftchi and Khazar in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ifeanyi Mathew was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 16 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.
Emin Mahmudov 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.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Neftchi told Vincent Aboubakar something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Breno Almeida
Kenan Pirić 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Neftchi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ifeanyi Mathew 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sessi D'Almeida. 1‑0 against Gabala, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.12 — 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Rashad Guseynov could afford to be generous.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Neftchi are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neftchi 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Rashad Guseynov could afford to be generous.
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.
Emin Mahmudov 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 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Falaye Sacko signs something — a contract at Neftchi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.36 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Neftchi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ifeanyi Mathew 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Neftchi told Freddy Vargas something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Ravan had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Neftchi did not stop to explain themselves.
Kenan Pirić 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Neftchi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ifeanyi Mathew 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jordan Rezabala. 1‑0 against Ravan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
9 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.
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Rashad Guseynov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Kenan Pirić 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.
It needed Ľubomír Tupta to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Zira, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Rashad Guseynov was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Neftchi dressing room was either.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Esin Hakaj is living that version at Neftchi, and it tends to show in the first month.
At 23 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.
Emin Mahmudov 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Richard Madatov 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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Position 3, 19 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Rashad Guseynov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Neftchi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Murad Məmmədov is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Neftchi will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ağadadaş Salyanskiy 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Lee Jenkins is living that version at Neftchi, and it tends to show in the first month.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Denzel Jubitana’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Neftchi.
Squad28 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Neftchi 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Rashad Guseynov on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neftchi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Minute 94, against Gabala, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Denzel Jubitana provided it, and the 8.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Neftchi and Kapaz in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑3, Rashad Guseynov could afford to be generous.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
An order from above at Neftchi: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Sumgayit moved on, Edvin Kuč reports back to Neftchi, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ľubomír Tupta. 3‑1 against Sumgayit, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almagro have kept their man, and Neftchi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Khazar paid $760.0K and Neftchi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Kenan Pirić 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Neftchi have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Denzel Jubitana was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Rashad Guseynov could afford to be generous.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
“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 Neftchi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kenan Pirić 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.
Zira paid $460.0K and Neftchi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Neftchi asked and Khazar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Zira had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Neftchi asked and Oriental said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Alessio Curci has come up in conversations Neftchi were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
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 0‑2 Rashad Guseynov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Neftchi have made the call to Olympique Lyonnais. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
BoardroomNeftchi say no to the training-ground money
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Neftchi have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arsenal have kept their man, and Neftchi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rahid Dadashov 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. Dimitrij Amirguliyev 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Emil Balayev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Neftchi needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Emin Mahmudov 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 left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Werder Bremen have kept their man, and Neftchi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Andriy Shtogrin has come up in conversations Neftchi were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Neftchi have made the call to Rapid Wien. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Neftchi have made the call to Almirante Brown. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.