The Ravan Chronicle
Squad15 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ruslan Khalilzade
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match15 Feb 2027
Every point is an argument now for Ravan
Position 9 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Samuel Lobato in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Kamran Nadirov 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Ravan lose Volkan Tekdemir
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Emin Khalilzade gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Jesse Debrah asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market15 Feb 2027
The Tamkin Guseynov story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tamkin Guseynov signs something — a contract at Ravan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market15 Feb 2027
Still no ink between Ravan and Duarte Furtado
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ravan, another week without a signature from Duarte Furtado.
In brief
- Market The market said no: Javid Guseynov stays put
- Market Still no signature from Salman Ələsqərov
- The dugout The manager comes out for Ruslan Khalilzade