Marked for Leonid Kuznetsov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Murom is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match31 Jul 2027
Nobody wants to play Murom right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Shamil Gasanov and Murom agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Murom
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denis Faizullin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Murom prefer.
Market2 Aug 2027
Nobody at Murom has picked up the phone to Ruslan Bolov
12 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
A mark of 7.83, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
In brief
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Squad
A falling-out at Murom
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Philipp Dvoretskov gets picked when it counts
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match18 Jan 2027
Murom refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 20 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Evgeny Livadnov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Murom have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Murom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Philipp Dvoretskov 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Murom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Rasil Asaidulin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Murom will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Murom, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Murom march on in the cup
Torpedo Miass are out and Murom go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Vyacheslav Antonov could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.51
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.51, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
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 Murom can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Murom
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Philipp Dvoretskov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
At 22 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
A goal on 98 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.88. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
7.82, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Murom had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.