Marked for Ruslan Bart
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad30 Nov 2026
A season average of 7.87 with 31 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match28 Nov 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Volga, and it could have been more.
Match28 Nov 2026
8 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad30 Nov 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market30 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Jonathan Dellarossa 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
229% of the income goes out in wages at Arsenal Tula
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
He is 21 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad2 Nov 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A season average of 7.55 with 19 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Ruslan Bart at 20 — 7.69
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ruslan Bart did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match31 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Arsenal Tula right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jonathan Dellarossa 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Arsenal Tula are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
229% of the income goes out in wages at Arsenal Tula
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Oct 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Arsenal Tula scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A brace, and Jonathan Dellarossa takes the afternoon — 9.59
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jonathan Dellarossa provided it, and the 9.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.48, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Ruslan Bart, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.13
A mark of 8.13 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A season average of 7.45 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad26 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 Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Oct 2026
It finished 4‑2, and it was Edarlyn Reyes’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Arsenal Tula.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erving Botaka-Yoboma 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 dugout26 Oct 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.
In brief
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Arsenal Tula
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The dugout
A promise honoured for Gregor Brekalo
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Oct 2026
3‑0, and Ruslan Bart took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Arsenal Tula tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Ruslan Bart, 20, steals the show — 8.20
Marked 8.20 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market19 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arsenal Tula is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Oct 2026
14 goals and a season average of 7.36 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Jonathan Dellarossa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
The crowd has taken to Ruslan Bart
At 20 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.32 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match30 Sep 2026
A 3‑0 win over Irkutsk, 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
Two goals and a mark of 9.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match3 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Arsenal Tula did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Ruslan Bart at 20 — 8.03
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ruslan Bart did not need any: 8.03, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Jonathan Dellarossa 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
13 goals and a season average of 7.35 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match3 Oct 2026
Three points for Arsenal Tula, 3‑1 the final word against Sokol in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 312% of everything Arsenal Tula 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Sochi have gone to Bodo/Glimt with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Independiente is saying, and nobody at Sochi is enjoying the guessing.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Sochi's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sochi has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Too dear: Sochi walk away from Moisés
$370.0K was the most the club would pay and CSKA Moscow were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Zakhar Fedorov has come up in conversations Sochi were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Alexandr Soldatenkov 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Sochi against Rostov
0‑1 to Rostov, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ruslan Bart 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 Sochi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$1.1M was the most the club would pay and Dinamo Moscow were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The paperwork begins on Joel Medina
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sochi have done the hard part with Independiente, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Sochi
Mikhail Ignatov 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 targets17 Aug 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A point taken on 93 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Sochi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ruslan Bart was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Sochi
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Osipov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
Sochi say no — this time
The offer from CSKA Moscow for Alexandr Soldatenkov 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$1.1M 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The deal with Besiktas is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexandr Soldatenkov and Sochi agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
François Kamano 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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Roman Denisov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Sochi have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Sochi
Mikhail Ignatov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
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.
Market3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” François Kamano commits to Sochi for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Sochi
Mikhail Slepov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Ruslan Bart has come up in conversations Sochi were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Alexandr Soldatenkov 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Sochi come up short against Akhmat
Akhmat left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Sochi 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
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sochi, another week without a signature from Mikhail Slepov.