Marked for Yefim Kartashov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Sep 2028
38 matches without a win for Ravan
The run now stands at 38, and the questions being asked around Ravan are no longer polite ones.
Match30 Sep 2028
Ravan cannot find the net
9 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Ravan
Rashad Guseynov 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” João Barros and Ravan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Ravan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rufat Ismayilov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market2 Oct 2028
Still no offer on the table, and Orkhan Mammadov’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
The afternoon belonged to Jesse Debrah
A mark of 7.51, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
Wages swallow 86% of the Ravan income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces11 Sep 2028
Anger at Ravan spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words exchanged at Ravan
Richard Medvedev 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Toby Onanaye commits to Ravan for another 4 years.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Ravan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rufat Ismayilov 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 dugout11 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yefim Kartashov, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Sep 2028
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market11 Sep 2028
“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.
Market11 Sep 2028
The ambition of Kaïs Ali outgrows Ravan early
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Market11 Sep 2028
He is 19, and nobody at Ravan signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Aug 2028
Richard Medvedev damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
The deal with Zira is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Ravan
Rashad Guseynov 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Elçin Əlicanov 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Everybody at Ravan saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
“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
The terraces28 Feb 2028
Supporters organise against the Ravan board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad28 Feb 2028
76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ravan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Ravan
Rashad Guseynov 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 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Ravan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rufat Ismayilov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Jesse Debrah
“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 Feb 2028
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Feb 2028
84 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ravan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad21 Feb 2028
16 days out for Gianni Manfrin after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Rufat Ismayilov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jan 2028
130 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ravan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Ravan
Rashad Guseynov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gabala have kept their man, and Ravan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Ravan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elçin Əlicanov 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.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Inter have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Yefim Kartashov
“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.
Market10 Jan 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Tamkin Guseynov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Dženis Totić knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dženis Totić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Ravan and Khazar have settled on $120.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Jeimes’s move to Ravan collapses on the table
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Sumgayit; Ravan go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Ravan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agil Madatov 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yefim Kartashov commits to Ravan for another 2 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Too much change too quickly at Ravan
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Ravan
Javid Guseynov 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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
A loan enquiry to Qarabag: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market9 Aug 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ravan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market9 Aug 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Agil Madatov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.