Marked for Vugar Mammadov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Oct 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.
Squad26 Oct 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Dimitrij Medvedev 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Honours even between Ravan and Neftchi
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Squad26 Oct 2026
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
Crisis
Match10 Oct 2026
A hiding for Ravan
Beaten 0‑4 by Inter, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Caner Omur runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Edixon Mena 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Ravan
João Vítor 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.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Ravan, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad12 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.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
Doors closed at Ravan
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Vugar Mammadov dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Market12 Oct 2026
Ravan have made Dimitrij Medvedev available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Ravan
Rufat Amirguliyev 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 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for Ravan against AZAL
2‑3 to AZAL, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Edixon Mena 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Caner Omur at his very best
Marked 8.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Ravan.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Tamkin Madatov
“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 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ravan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market28 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mahir Ozobic’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.