Marked for Andre Grey
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2038
A fracture rules Cristiano Bani out for 158 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ravenna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad19 Apr 2038
A one-man rearguard from Tim Haksteeg
There were 12 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 ratings19 Apr 2038
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.46, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings19 Apr 2038
Joshua Tenkorang, 37, rolls back the years — 8.87
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.87 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad19 Apr 2038
Alvin Zekaj is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.51 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match17 Apr 2038
No clean sheets in sight for Ravenna
6 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad19 Apr 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Apr 2038
Alvin Zekaj among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Alvin Zekaj on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Ravenna and Campobasso.
Match17 Apr 2038
It finished 4‑2, and it was Alvin Zekaj’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ravenna.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Mar 2038
Ravenna throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Pontedera the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Ravenna will enjoy reviewing.
Match20 Mar 2038
The wait goes on for Ravenna
7 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.
Squad22 Mar 2038
A one-man rearguard from Tim Haksteeg
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.
Squad22 Mar 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kylian Aïssi 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
A performance of 8.97 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
Marked 8.23 — 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.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Defences have started doubling up on Alvin Zekaj
6 goals and a season average of 7.39 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
A performance of 8.14 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Mar 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market8 Mar 2038
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ravenna can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom8 Mar 2038
Ravenna counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Ravenna now.
Match6 Mar 2038
5 matches without a win for Ravenna
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Ravenna are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom8 Mar 2038
The Ravenna board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad8 Mar 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tim Haksteeg and Ravenna agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings8 Mar 2038
23 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.
Squad8 Mar 2038
Rodrigo González 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
Steady
Squad20 Jul 2037
Lorenzo Da Pozzo damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Match20 Jul 2037
Ravenna are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 64 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad20 Jul 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
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Squad
Andre Grey gets it from the manager
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Boardroom
91% of the income goes out in wages at Ravenna
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Market
The Cristiano Bani story refuses to die
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings20 Apr 2037
Joshua Tenkorang, 36, rolls back the years — 9.03
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.03 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad20 Apr 2037
A season average of 7.27 with 24 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Cristian Spini 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.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Kylian Aïssi 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.
Match18 Apr 2037
A 2‑1 win over Campobasso, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings20 Apr 2037
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings20 Apr 2037
Marked 8.53 — 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.
Squad20 Apr 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andre Grey, and the manager let it.
Player ratings20 Apr 2037
Shots: 11, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Mar 2037
Defences have started doubling up on Finn Inglethorpe
23 goals and a season average of 7.33 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market16 Mar 2037
Hannes Gamper has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ravenna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Mar 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kylian Aïssi 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.
Match14 Mar 2037
Finn Inglethorpe scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Ternana, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad16 Mar 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tim Haksteeg, and the manager let it.
Player ratings16 Mar 2037
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market16 Mar 2037
The name of Cristian Spini keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ravenna say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings16 Mar 2037
Alvin Zekaj leaves them behind him
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.