Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikita Morozov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ural 2 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Artem Kulikov 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 shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
15 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.
0‑3 to Nosta, 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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 manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
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 0‑3 Denis Tsvetkov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Position 13, 14 points, and a crowd that arrives already braced. Relegation seasons are lost in exactly this atmosphere, and everybody who has lived through one recognises it immediately.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ural 2 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Ural 2 and Khimik, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Ural 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Pavlov 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.
Artem Kulikov 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.
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.
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Ural 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Savely Zolkin 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Denis Tsvetkov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Ural 2 are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Pavel Satuchin, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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 7.64 for the rest of it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Daniil Yeremin 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Ural 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Kulikov 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.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Ural 2 know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Artem Kulikov 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ural 2 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Ural 2 is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Kulikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 dugout7 Dec 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 1‑2 Denis Tsvetkov left the room before anybody could ask which.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Pavel Satuchin is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Scherbakov signs something — a contract at Ural 2 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Artem Kulikov 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Denis Tsvetkov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Ural 2 dressing room was either.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Uralets-TS defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1 for Ilja Khatuntsev, marked 7.90, 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.
Artem Kulikov 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.
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Denis Tsvetkov chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Chances created: 6. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Nosta left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Artem Kulikov 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 dugout19 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 Denis Tsvetkov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Ural 2 is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ural 2 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Vitaly Bondarev 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.
Dinamo Barnaul held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Ural 2 answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
13 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Denis Tsvetkov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vitaly Bondarev did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ural 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Stanislav Bondarenko. 1‑0 against Chelyabinsk 2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Denis Tsvetkov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Chances created: 7. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
At 18 he has taken a place rather than been given one, and somebody else has to find something to say about it. Ural 2 have a decision that made itself.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ural 2 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Vitaly Bondarev had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Artem Kulikov 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.
At 28 he has taken a place rather than been given one, and somebody else has to find something to say about it. Ural 2 have a decision that made itself.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ural 2 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Murom waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ural 2 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad31 Aug 2026
13 new faces, and Ural 2 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.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ural 2 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stanislav Bondarenko provided it, and the 8.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Artem Kulikov 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Stanislav Bondarenko 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Ural 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Savely Zolkin 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.
9 combined actions and 7.22. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexandr Scherbakov and Ural 2 agree another 4 years.
Daniil Yeremin 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Ural 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Kulikov 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 phone has started ringing about Vitaly Bondarev again, and this time the name on the line is Torpedo Miass. Ural 2 are listening politely and promising nothing.
13 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Denis Tsvetkov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.