Marked for Alexandr Rendakov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Dec 2026
Legion are in real trouble now
Position 18, 13 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad14 Dec 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 Legion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Marek Jaroň 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anzor Tokaev, and the manager let it.
Match12 Dec 2026
Legion hit back inside 4 minutes
Rubin Yalta held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Legion answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Marked 7.71 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Legion had the best player on the pitch.
Match12 Dec 2026
It needed Ilja Glebov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Rubin Yalta, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ruslan Shevtsov was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Legion dressing room was either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Legion
Ilja Glebov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Nov 2026
0‑1 to Spartak Nalchik, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Jamaludin Ipaev
“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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market9 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market9 Nov 2026
Legion have let the market know Yaroslav Matvienko can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Market9 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Magomed Ibragimov signs something — a contract at Legion or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Legion's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Legion has to find a result from somewhere.
Market26 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 Legion, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Oct 2026
There were 6 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Legion may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match24 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Legion
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Legion can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Legion
Ilja Glebov 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
Marek Jaroň 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Legion against Rostov 2
0‑1 to Rostov 2, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Legion's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Legion has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 25 in, 0 out at Legion
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 25 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Legion have done the hard part with Krasnodar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Legion
Ilja Glebov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Legion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marek Jaroň 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑2 to PSK Pervorechenskoe, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Arseny Chaykovsky has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Timofey Shevchenko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
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The dugout
No hiding place for Alexandr Rendakov
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Squad
13 new faces, and Legion are still learning each other
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ilja Glebov 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 Legion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Legion asked and Rodina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Arman Simonyan 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 Sep 2026
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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A loan enquiry to Krasnodar: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Zenit 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sergey Reznichenko commits to Legion for another 3 years.
Market7 Sep 2026
Akhmed Davudov is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Legion has been clear about where Akhmed Davudov stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.