Marked for Javid Sheydaev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market5 Jul 2027
Sumgayit come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ravan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market5 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Ravan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rashad Jafarov 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Javid Sheydaev has improved at 29, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Diego Temoche, and the manager let it.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Ravan academy
3 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Ravan
Mahir Sadygov 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Agil Mammadov, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Ravan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Penela 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
Samir Jafarov 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 Ravan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Ravan
Araz 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Ravan against Sumgayit
0‑1 to Sumgayit, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ruslan Khalilzade, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
Sumgayit come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ravan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ravan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Ravan
Kleyder Barreto 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Diego Temoche 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.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
It needed Araz Amirguliyev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Neftchi, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
Ravan say no — this time
The offer from Sumgayit for Maksim Guseynov 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Rashad Jafarov again, and this time the name on the line is Gabala. Ravan are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad17 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 Ravan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Ravan
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market17 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Ravan will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match15 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Ravan against Qarabag
0‑2 to Qarabag, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market17 Aug 2026
One of our own: Eddy Nazarov joins the Ravan first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Eddy Nazarov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad17 Aug 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Ravan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agil Bayramov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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 Ravan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Ravan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rashad Jafarov 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Javid Sheydaev is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ravan has been clear about where Javid Sheydaev stands, which is more than many ever get.