Marked for Rashad Nadirov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rashad Nadirov
18 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.
Match26 Oct 2026
Ravan are in real trouble now
Position 9, 5 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad26 Oct 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Ravan
Salim Hashimov 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Ravan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dragoljub Savić 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 terraces26 Oct 2026
At 20 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.
Match26 Oct 2026
The half-term report on Ravan
Position 9, 5 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout26 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Renat Dadashov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
26 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.
Market19 Oct 2026
Kamran Nadirov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ravan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Ravan
Salim Hashimov 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Ravan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dragoljub Savić 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Dragoljub Savić
“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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Match17 Oct 2026
Ravan share the spoils with Kapaz
A 1‑1 draw with Kapaz leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Rashad Nadirov damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Salim Hashimov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Ravan
Salim Hashimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Ravan is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Market12 Oct 2026
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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Mahir Mammadov leaves Ravan the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rashad Nadirov
40 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Kamran Nadirov yet — 7.87
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match3 Oct 2026
At last: Ravan win one
7 matches without a win, and then this, against AZAL. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad5 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Ravan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dragoljub Savić 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ravan get the job done against AZAL
A 1‑0 win over AZAL, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Afran Sheydaev and Ravan agree another 1 years.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Renat Dadashov kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Richard Medvedev, and the manager let it.