Marked for Artur Maxetsov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Jan 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
16 days out for Iljas Muminov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Leningradets will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
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 Leningradets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Leningradets now.
The dugout4 Jan 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 dugout4 Jan 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Daniil Rodin’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout4 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 Leningradets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 46. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market2 Nov 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
The Leningradets board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Match31 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Leningradets did not have in the autumn.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 499% of everything Leningradets 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Loan watch2 Nov 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 Leningradets, and 4 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Olivier Kenfack at 21 — 8.07
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Olivier Kenfack did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market3 Aug 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexey Kuznetsov and Leningradets agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Alexey Kuznetsov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Leningradets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Yemeljanov 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 terraces3 Aug 2026
He is 22 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Maxim Bachinskiy. 2‑0 against Textilschik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.