Marked for Valentino Ulmer
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Ravan's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ravan has to find a result from somewhere.
Market28 Dec 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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ravan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Ravan
Samuel Lobato 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Ravan come up short against Kapaz
Kapaz left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Ravan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dragoljub Savić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Renat Dadashov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Afran Sheydaev
“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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
One booking too many, and Dragoljub Savić sits out. Ravan lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Dec 2026
Ravan sink to position 9
7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match19 Dec 2026
9 matches without a win for Ravan
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Ravan are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Ravan — 7.65
1 for Samuel Lobato, marked 7.65, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Salim Hashimov is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad21 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Ravan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dragoljub Savić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Elvin Camalov
“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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Ravan caught on 87 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then AZAL scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Valentino Ulmer and Ravan agree another 1 years.
In brief
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Match
Samuel Lobato rescues a point for Ravan
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Market
Experience through the door at Ravan
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Hamburger SV for Marcel Kalajdzic 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Dejan Posch could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.35
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.35, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.95, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Mattersburg have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mattersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Konrad Lindner 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 terraces3 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Dejan Posch
At 18 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.