“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shafa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Shafa 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.
The deal that would have taken İbrahim Əliyev to Jabrayil has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Shafa with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Shafa asked and Sporting Baku 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 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.
Nuğay Rəşidov 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lucas Zanatelli has his answer from Shafa; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Édgo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Novruz Məmmədov 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 Léo Bahia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Tapdıq Əhmədov
MarketThe clock does Léo Bahia’s negotiating for him
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Shafa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Shafa have done the hard part with Gabala, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shafa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Léo Bahia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Shafa had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shafa can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shafa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Shafa know it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Léo Bahia 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.
Amir Ebrahimzadeh was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shafa can pretend not to have heard.
Position 3, 28 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Novruz Məmmədov 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shafa can tell you which week it ends in.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Shafa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Léo Bahia 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Cavad Hacıyev.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Novruz Məmmədov 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Édgo 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 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Eddy Garayev to a room that had heard them before.
Sabail next, and one man in the Shafa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Shafa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shafa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Léo Bahia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Balamirzə Soltanov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Shafa have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Tapdıq Əhmədov will call it something else in private.
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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Eddy Garayev was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Shafa dressing room was either.
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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Shafa scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Léo Bahia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The 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.
Novruz Məmmədov 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 had been thinking. Édgo 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Balamirzə Soltanov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Shafa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Novruz Məmmədov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Léo Bahia 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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Léo Bahia has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against DIFAI Agsu in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and İbrahim Məmmədov has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Édgo signs something — a contract at Shafa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Looking aheadLooking ahead: the trip to DIFAI Agsu
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Léo Bahia provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shafa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nahid Əliyev did not need any: 8.01, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Shafa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 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.
Novruz Məmmədov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Shafa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Amir Ebrahimzadeh has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Amir Ebrahimzadeh’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Shafa.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Cavad Hacıyev 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Novruz Məmmədov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Édgo 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.
17 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 1‑0, Eddy Garayev could afford to be generous.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Shahdag Qusar next, and one man in the Shafa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Shafa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Shafa know now that the thought has arrived.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Novruz Məmmədov 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is İbrahim Novruzov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Shafa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shafa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Cavad Hacıyev 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shafa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Novruz Məmmədov 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 Léo Bahia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tapdıq Əhmədov, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Sep 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Eddy Garayev to a room that had heard them before.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Shafa has been clear about where Rəvan Kazımov stands, which is more than many ever get.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. İsmayıl Zülfüqarlı scored, was marked 7.87, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Léo Bahia 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Zagatala in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutTapdıq Əhmədov asks for a word with the manager
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shafa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cavad Hacıyev 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Sep 2026
17 new faces, and Shafa 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.
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 level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Shafa know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
In brief
The dugoutAyyoub Allach has become a man the manager trusts
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 30 arrived, 19 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Édgo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Shafa know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Jabrayil next, and one man in the Shafa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The deal with Gabala 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.
Shafa asked and Mingachevir said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Novruz Məmmədov 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.
İbrahim Məmmədov 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.
“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 Shafa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Novruz Məmmədov 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.
Shafa asked and Gabala said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cavad Hacıyev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Aug 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 Eddy Garayev to a room that had heard them before.
Amir Ebrahimzadeh and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Amir Ebrahimzadeh has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A mark of 7.79, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad17 Aug 2026
14 new faces, and Shafa 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Shafa have done the hard part with Gabala, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shafa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Shafa asked and Qarabag said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Novruz Məmmədov 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Dimitrij Ozobic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kamran Ozobic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Orkhan Abdullayev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Eddy Amirguliyev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Amir Ebrahimzadeh was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Novruz Məmmədov 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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Shafa will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Shafa, another week without a signature from Nahid Əliyev.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Nuğay Rəşidov is in the works