From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
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
Qarabag asked and AZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Samuel Lobato again, and this time the name on the line is Torpedo-BelAZ. Qarabag are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
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 dugout24 Aug 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Renat Guseynov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Match22 Aug 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Sumgayit defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Market24 Aug 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Musa Qurbanlı’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
Qarabag say no — this time
The offer from Torpedo-BelAZ for Čebrail Makreckis 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.
The dugout17 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Appearance number 100 for Reda Khadra
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Qarabag can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Market17 Aug 2026
Qarabag and Jefinho are talking past each other
“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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Qarabag turn down the training-ground plan
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sivasspor had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
No deal for Fabri at that price
Qarabag offered $1.6M; Vitória 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marko Janković wants continental football; whether Qarabag can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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
Words exchanged at Qarabag
Kady Borges 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Zagatala have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Chriso. The answer from Qarabag has not changed — yet.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ruslan 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Qarabag know which stage they are at.
Squad10 Aug 2026
12 new faces, and Qarabag 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Qarabag say no — this time
The offer from Anderlecht for Mateusz Kochalski 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
326 appearances across 13 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Qarabag know what they have.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jefinho 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. Jefinho has, at Qarabag, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Vitória 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Market3 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Pedro Bicalho wants continental football; whether Qarabag can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Reda Khadra and Qarabag agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Qarabag
Kady Borges and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Toronto FC have kept their man, and Qarabag go back to a list with one name crossed off it.