The Volga Sentinel
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Kirill Folmer was unplayable
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Volga
Kirill Folmer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match10 Oct 2026
Volga come up short against Ural
Ural left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Artur Murza 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Mikhail Rogov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Evgeny Pshennikov
“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 dugout12 Oct 2026
When it matters, Denis Rakhmanov plays
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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Rinat Shakerov goes back to face Rodina
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Rinat Shakerov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Volga needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Evgeny Voronin knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Volga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
- Squad The shirt is Diego Lima’s
- Loan watch Denis Yeremeev’s loan is measured in nothing happening
- Squad Evgeny Pshennikov: “I am not a substitute”