From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 48. 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$490.0K was the most the club would pay and Deportivo Municipal 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Neftchi asked and DAC Dunajska Streda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match29 Aug 2026
AZAL made Neftchi work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 7.81 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Neftchi had the best player on the pitch.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Neftchi
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Neftchi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Balayev 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Mahir Sadygov could afford to be generous.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 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 The request is on a desk at Neftchi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Aug 2026
Inter come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Neftchi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Neftchi
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Catania have kept their man, and Neftchi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match22 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Neftchi against Ravan
0‑2 to Ravan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout24 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Doors closed at Neftchi
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Aug 2026
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Freddy Vargas decided nobody was going anywhere. Zira had no time left to answer.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Khazar 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Gabala come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Neftchi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Imad Faraj runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Neftchi
Kenan Pirić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market17 Aug 2026
Inter paid $310.0K 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Neftchi asked and Almirante Brown said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Freddy Vargas’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Neftchi.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Emil Səfərov
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Neftchi will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
In brief
-
Player ratings
The afternoon belonged to Freddy Vargas
-
Squad
Words at Neftchi training over how hard people work
-
Transfer targets
A loan move for Klāvs Bethers is in the works
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Neftchi
Emin Mahmudov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bahlul Nazarov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kamran Nadirov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eddy Amirguliyev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mahir Medvedev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Ľubomír Tupta asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Looking ahead10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Kenan Pirić has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Neftchi that is a harder question to answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Emil Balayev has company in his position
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Emil Balayev keeps the shirt for now, at Neftchi's convenience rather than his own.
In brief
-
Squad
Emin Mahmudov has started doing his badges
-
Looking ahead
Looking ahead: Zira at home
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vincent Aboubakar and Neftchi agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Neftchi
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Neftchi have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.