Marked for Ruslan Dadashov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Nov 2028
No end in sight to Ravan's wait for a win
44 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ravan has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ruslan Dadashov
20 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.
Squad27 Nov 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.
Match25 Nov 2028
Michael Brammeld scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Gabala, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Match25 Nov 2028
Ravan are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad27 Nov 2028
João Barros 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.
Looking ahead27 Nov 2028
Ravan face Khazar in the game that matters most
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Dženis Totić 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.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
97% of the income goes out in wages at Ravan
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Yusif İmanov has become a man the manager trusts
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Squad
“I want to play”: Maksim Ismayilov speaks
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Nov 2028
Every point is an argument now for Ravan
Position 10 and 1 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Ruslan Dadashov damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Market20 Nov 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.
Squad20 Nov 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.
Squad20 Nov 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Ravan are still strangers to each other
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gianni Manfrin, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead20 Nov 2028
Gabala next, and one man in the Ravan dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market20 Nov 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Rufat Ismayilov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Nov 2028
No end in sight to Ravan's wait for a win
43 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ravan has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 Nov 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ruslan Dadashov
36 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.
Match11 Nov 2028
Chastening afternoon for Ravan
A 0‑3 beating by Sumgayit was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market13 Nov 2028
Yusif İmanov 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
6 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
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.
Squad13 Nov 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.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“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.
Boardroom13 Nov 2028
Nobody left the Ravan dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Jul 2027
Ravan sink to position 9
7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Ravan
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
$50.0K settles it between the clubs for Maksim Medvedev
Inter have accepted the money. What Ravan do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ravan have done the hard part with Khazar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad5 Jul 2027
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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Qarabag have kept their man, and Ravan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Ravan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Claudio Fernández 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
42 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.