Marked for Maxim Dedelev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
The knee: Luca Falbo out for 53 days
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ravenna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Ravenna had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cesena, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market26 Jul 2027
“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.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad26 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Ravenna
Simone Rabbi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market26 Jul 2027
The phone has started ringing about Abdel Rachid Zagré again, and this time the name on the line is Vorskla. Ravenna are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Simone Rabbi, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Alessandro Bianconi 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.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ravenna people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 21 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Ravenna
Stefano Okaka 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 Jun 2027
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Rabbi 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Simone Rabbi
“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.
Market28 Jun 2027
Renate are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Ravenna will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
In brief
-
Boardroom
87% of the income goes out in wages at Ravenna
-
The dugout
Joyce Anacoura gets picked when it counts
-
The dugout
Cristian Spini is still being punished for one mistake
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 May 2027
Stefano Okaka damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Market31 May 2027
“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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout31 May 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad31 May 2027
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.
Squad31 May 2027
Maxim Dedelev 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. Maxim Dedelev has, at Ravenna, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giovanni Zaro 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 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lorenzo Lonardi, and the manager let it.
Boardroom31 May 2027
Wages eat 93% of everything Ravenna earn
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.
The dugout31 May 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ravenna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2026
20 days out for Elnur Khalygov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cherepovets will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match10 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Cherepovets
A 0‑3 beating by Luki-Energiya was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market12 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cherepovets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market12 Oct 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 Cherepovets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match10 Oct 2026
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Miron Belyaev and Cherepovets agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Viktor Bokov 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yaroslav Bokov 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Elnur Khalygov out for 56 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cherepovets will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Sep 2026
Elnur Khalygov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cherepovets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market7 Sep 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leonid Guzhvin and Cherepovets agree another 3 years.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Leonid Guzhvin 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Vladimir Maklasov is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Andrey Pyrkin
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
Maxim Dedelev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cherepovets can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrey Pyrkin and Cherepovets agree another 2 years.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Dinamo St Petersburg 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Cherepovets have gone to Luki-Energiya with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ilja Antsiferov 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Irkutsk left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout3 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.
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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.