Marked for Ruslan Bagaev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Sep 2026
Kosmos bow out of the cup
Neftekhimik go through and Kosmos go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market5 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 The request is on a desk at Kosmos, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 13 of the 22 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
A cup hiding at Neftekhimik leaves Kosmos explaining themselves
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Kosmos
Samir Masimov 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
135% of the income goes out in wages at Kosmos
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Nikita Yershov
“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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Kosmos 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Arseny Belov and Kosmos agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Nart pay $55.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market7 Sep 2026
Business is business: Timur Chetoev goes
Znamya Truda paid $40.0K and Alania took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market7 Sep 2026
Kosmos pay $18.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Makhach Abdulkhamidov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.80, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Taras Gagloev named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Taras Gagloev is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Match5 Sep 2026
Alania and Tyumen take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Sep 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 6.83 for the rest of it.
Market7 Sep 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 Kosmos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Sep 2026
The fee is $18.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Alania drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Kosmos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Matvevnin 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.
Squad7 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match5 Sep 2026
Kosmos hit back inside 2 minutes
Spartak Moscow 2 held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Kosmos answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Maxim Abramov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Maxim Abramov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Kosmos have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match5 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Aug 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Georgy Karkuzaev scored in the 85th minute, Mashuk had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Alania took the lot.
Market31 Aug 2026
Artur Gagiev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alania can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
At 23 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Nart have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Inal Dudaev. The answer from Alania has not changed — yet.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Georgy Karkuzaev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Alania.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Alan Khugaev gets it from the manager
“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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Alania will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Shots: 5. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Georgy Karkuzaev is the weekend's best young player
At 17 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Ruslan Bagaev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alania can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Alania
Alan Bagaev 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Makhach Abdulkhamidov, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Sarmat Ogoev has come up in conversations Alania were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Alania, another week without a signature from Alan Bagaev.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Alan Khugaev dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Shots: 4, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Market10 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Timur Chetoev has his answer from Alania; what he does with it is the next window’s story.