Marked for Dmitry Mikhailov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Sep 2026
Dinamo Moscow ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market5 Oct 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Kuban Holding, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Favio Funes pops up at the right end — 7.84
7.84, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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 Kuban Holding this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Kuban Holding training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Favio Funes 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 152% of everything Kuban Holding earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Favio Funes has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Dmitry Mikhailov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kuban Holding.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Kuban Holding training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tumelo Shai 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Sochi 2 left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vyacheslav Puzikov, and the manager let it.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Kuban Holding, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Amir Khairulin 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Sep 2026
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Pobeda will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Kirill Zhitlov pops up at the right end — 7.22
7.22, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Favio Funes 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 Kuban Holding this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 2‑1 win over Pobeda, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
At 23 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Vyacheslav Puzikov 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.
Squad14 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Kuban Holding, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Sep 2026
Add another name to the list: KDV Tomsk have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ivan Sergienko. The answer from Kuban Holding has not changed — yet.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tumelo Shai 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amir Khairulin, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Toró has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kuban Holding 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kuban Holding, another week without a signature from Yegor Dorofeev.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Aug 2026
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 1‑7 beating by Dinamo Stavropol was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market10 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 Kuban Holding can pretend not to have heard.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match8 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Kuban Holding and Dinamo Stavropol, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Market10 Aug 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dmitry Solovjov signs something — a contract at Kuban Holding or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Kuban Holding squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Aug 2026
A 0‑13 beating by Sevastopol was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market3 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 Kuban Holding can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Dmitry Solovjov commits to Kuban Holding for another 2 years.
Match1 Aug 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
13 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Kuban Holding and Sevastopol in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikita Tagiev, and the manager let it.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Kuban Holding 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Matvey Smirnov's contract
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kuban Holding, another week without a signature from Dmitry Mikhailov.