Marked for Dudu
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Dudu 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.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
“I did not go to Kampaniakos to sit and watch. I want to come back to Aris Thessaloniki and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Migouel Alfarela 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.
Market11 Oct 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aris Thessaloniki know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Migouel Alfarela has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Aris Thessaloniki that is a harder question to answer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Aris Thessaloniki people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market23 Aug 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Aris Thessaloniki, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
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.
Market23 Aug 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Aris Thessaloniki will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Dudu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zois Karargyris and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 4 years.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jul 2027
Altamura come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Aris Thessaloniki did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Newell's Old Boys have kept their man, and Aris Thessaloniki go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
71 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Dudu signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dudu and Aris Thessaloniki agree another 3 years.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Marko Kerkez 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.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Fredrik Jensen has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
The formation has left Miloš Jović behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Aris Thessaloniki will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market12 Jul 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Omar Richards’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Match12 Jul 2027
Position 5 on 53 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michalis Voriazidis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Aris Thessaloniki asked and Estudiantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market5 Jul 2027
Dudu returns a better player
26 games and 4 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Dudu 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 Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Lecce 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.
Market5 Jul 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Lindsay Rose has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Aris Thessaloniki.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Aris Thessaloniki people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market14 Jun 2027
The bid was some way short and Aris Thessaloniki did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Aris Thessaloniki asked and Marko said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Manu García
“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 dugout14 Jun 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market14 Jun 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Aris Thessaloniki will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Aris Thessaloniki that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Match14 Jun 2027
Position 5 on 53 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Fabiano has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Fabiano has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2027
Tempers go at Akron
Stefan Lončar 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Akron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristijan Bistrović 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 dugout24 May 2027
“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 dugout24 May 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 Akron, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout24 May 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Magomed Abakarov is on it.
Market24 May 2027
The Marat Bokoev story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marat Bokoev signs something — a contract at Akron or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 May 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aris Thessaloniki they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 May 2027
Rafa Mir 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.
Squad17 May 2027
The medical room confirms 35 days on the sidelines for Lazaros Alexiou, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout17 May 2027
“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 dugout17 May 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market17 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Manu García’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Match17 May 2027
Continental football is in reach for Aris Thessaloniki
53 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Loan watch17 May 2027
The goals keep arriving from Dudu’s exile
4 goals in 26 games at Akron — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Aris Thessaloniki updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout17 May 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Apr 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michalis Panagidis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aris Thessaloniki the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Fredrik Jensen has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki 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.
Market19 Apr 2027
The Manu García talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aris Thessaloniki know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Match19 Apr 2027
Position 5 on 53 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aris Thessaloniki is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Mar 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 Aris Thessaloniki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“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 dugout22 Mar 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Fredrik Jensen is on it.
Market22 Mar 2027
The Manu García talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aris Thessaloniki know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Match22 Mar 2027
Continental football is in reach for Aris Thessaloniki
53 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Fabiano has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Fabiano has written the date down.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
The goals keep arriving from Dudu’s exile
4 goals in 26 games at Akron — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Aris Thessaloniki updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Feb 2027
“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.
Market8 Feb 2027
The bid was some way short and Akron did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.82 for the rest of it.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Akron have done the hard part with Kuban, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market8 Feb 2027
The fee is $610.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Sochi drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Match6 Feb 2027
4 matches without a win for Akron
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Akron are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Akron
Roberto Fernández 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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Both jobs done by Dudu — 7.05
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 7.05, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Ørn Flø gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ørn Flø has just signed for Akron, and for once the answer mattered.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 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 Akron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Semyon Zelenov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match2 Jan 2027
Three points for Akron, 2‑0 the final word against Rubin in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market4 Jan 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Arseny Guzhvin is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market4 Jan 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Egor Laptev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market4 Jan 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Anton Spiridonov 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Arseny Romanov 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
One of those days for Dudu
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.35, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Marked 8.09 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Dec 2026
“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.
Match14 Dec 2026
Akron are in real trouble now
Position 14, 16 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Akron
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Akron
Roberto Fernández 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Dudu’s goal not enough for Akron
Dudu scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Orenburg, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout14 Dec 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Dudu was the difference for Akron
Marked 7.98. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
Akron take on the side everybody is chasing
Krasnodar arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match18 Nov 2026
Akron march on in the cup
Ural are out and Akron go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Semyon Zelenov at 19 — 7.80
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Semyon Zelenov did not need any: 7.80, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Akron
Roberto Fernández 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vitaly Gudiev, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Gilson Benchimol's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Innokentiy Dmitriev after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
A promise honoured at Akron
Something was said to Bojan Dimoski and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akron may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Akron
Roberto Fernández 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Akron
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khetag Khosonov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Kirill Kosarev
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Khetag Khosonov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Sep 2026
Cup progress for Akron
A 3‑0 win over Sevastopol, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.19, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 8.03 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Semyon Zelenov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match3 Oct 2026
Akron make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Akron have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Akron
Roberto Fernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Timur Abdrashitov has just signed for Akron, and for once the answer mattered.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Aleksa Đurasović 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 Stefan Lončar’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Akron.
In brief
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Match
Akron settle it inside twenty minutes
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Player ratings
Dudu in the eights
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Squad
Words at Akron training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
Akron throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Lokomotiv Moscow the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Akron will enjoy reviewing.
Market14 Sep 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 Akron can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Sep 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Akron have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 3 in, 4 out at Akron
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad14 Sep 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 Akron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Rubin wanted more than $130.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Match12 Sep 2026
Lokomotiv Moscow left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Akron training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dudu 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.
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 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 Akron can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Sep 2026
The name of Stefan Lončar has come up in conversations Akron were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $133.5K — a club that wants Mikhail Ryadno enough to be asked twice.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Akron
Roberto Fernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Volga have kept their man, and Akron go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Dudu 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 dugout7 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Akron are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Paulo Vitor slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Paulo Vitor is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
Akron say no — this time
The offer from Krasnodar for Stefan Lončar was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.34 for the rest of it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Akron
Roberto Fernández 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Akron asked and Volga said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market24 Aug 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yury Zheleznov. 3‑1 against Baltika, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Akron
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dudu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Gilson Benchimol at his very best
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Akron.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
Akron taken apart
2‑5 to Krasnodar, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market17 Aug 2026
Orenburg come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Akron did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$2.4M on the table at Dinamo Moscow. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Akron — 7.72
1 for Stefan Lončar, marked 7.72, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Aleksa Đurasović delivers — 7.22
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Aleksa Đurasović scored, was marked 7.22, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $445.0K — a club that wants Baqtiiar Zainutdinov enough to be asked twice.
Squad17 Aug 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 Akron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
Aleksa Đurasović among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Aleksa Đurasović on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Akron and Krasnodar.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Dudu 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.