Marked for Stepan Degtev
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Nov 2032
A fracture rules Artem Terentjev out for 27 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Uralets-TS will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad22 Nov 2032
Ilja Tikhomirov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Nov 2032
Words at Uralets-TS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stepan Degtev 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.
Match20 Nov 2032
0‑1 to Dinamo Barnaul, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom22 Nov 2032
No signings allowed at Uralets-TS
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
The dugout22 Nov 2032
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 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings22 Nov 2032
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
The dugout22 Nov 2032
Ivan Safonov gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ivan Safonov is on it.
The dugout22 Nov 2032
The manager makes an example of Yefrem Rakov
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market8 Nov 2032
“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.
Match6 Nov 2032
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Uralets-TS have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Ilja Tikhomirov 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.
Squad8 Nov 2032
A row about effort at Uralets-TS
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Tsallagov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match6 Nov 2032
Three points for Uralets-TS, 2‑0 the final word against KDV Tomsk in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Match6 Nov 2032
Uralets-TS make home a hard place to visit
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings8 Nov 2032
A performance of 8.55 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout8 Nov 2032
The manager makes an example of Stepan Degtev
“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.
Player ratings8 Nov 2032
Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Uralets-TS.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Oct 2032
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 7‑0 against Chelyabinsk 2, and it could have been more.
Match1 Nov 2032
Uralets-TS are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 25 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad1 Nov 2032
The match ball belongs to Nesher Meulenbroek, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings1 Nov 2032
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vyacheslav Dobrorodov provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad1 Nov 2032
David Tsallagov 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.
Player ratings1 Nov 2032
Nesher Meulenbroek was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.59. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad1 Nov 2032
Stepan Degtev 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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2032
Wages eat 335% of everything Uralets-TS 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
Steady
Market11 Oct 2032
“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 Uralets-TS, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Oct 2032
David Tsallagov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Oct 2032
Too much change too quickly at Uralets-TS
6 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 dugout11 Oct 2032
Ivan Safonov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout11 Oct 2032
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 dugout11 Oct 2032
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nikita Korolev is on it.
Market11 Oct 2032
Uralets-TS have let the market know Sory Ouattara can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market11 Oct 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nesher Meulenbroek’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad11 Oct 2032
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match25 Sep 2032
Ural 2 will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Uralets-TS were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
Chances created: 18. 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.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Gleb Kalinin pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad27 Sep 2032
David Tsallagov 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.
Match25 Sep 2032
Whatever happens, Uralets-TS do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Boardroom27 Sep 2032
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The dugout27 Sep 2032
The manager makes an example of Stepan Degtev
“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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
Gleb Kalinin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings20 Sep 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match18 Sep 2032
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Uralets-TS and Textilschik in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad20 Sep 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uralets-TS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2032
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Match18 Sep 2032
It finished 3‑3, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad20 Sep 2032
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Uralets-TS will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market20 Sep 2032
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout20 Sep 2032
Stepan Degtev 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.
The dugout20 Sep 2032
Ivan Safonov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Uralets-TS will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Aug 2032
Valentin Zyuganov damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The terraces16 Aug 2032
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 5 of the 25 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Konstantin Simakov 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.
Match14 Aug 2032
1‑3 to Amkar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2032
Uralets-TS asked and Chaika said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Aug 2032
A row about effort at Uralets-TS
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gleb Kalinin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Aug 2032
The manager makes an example of David Tsallagov
“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.
Market16 Aug 2032
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Pavel Satuchin has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Uralets-TS.
Market16 Aug 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 May 2031
No mercy from Niva
Uni-X Labs will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Niva were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market5 May 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Niva can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 May 2031
“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; Niva are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom5 May 2031
$85.6K of the owner's money at Niva
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Player ratings5 May 2031
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom5 May 2031
Wages swallow 98% of the Niva income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Squad5 May 2031
A row about effort at Niva
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Piotr Ceglarz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 May 2031
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.” Pavel Stasevich, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout5 May 2031
Nobody at Niva will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Feb 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad3 Feb 2031
The knee: Egor Rios out for 95 days
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Niva lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market3 Feb 2031
“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 Niva, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets3 Feb 2031
The deal with Isloch 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.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
$73.4K of the owner's money at Niva
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Transfer targets3 Feb 2031
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.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Luke Simmons 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.
Squad3 Feb 2031
35 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Transfer targets3 Feb 2031
Torpedo-BelAZ have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Jan 2031
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Niva will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom6 Jan 2031
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Pavel Stasevich has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market6 Jan 2031
“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.
Squad6 Jan 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Niva this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom6 Jan 2031
$78.6K from the owner keeps Niva afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad6 Jan 2031
A row about effort at Niva
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luke Simmons was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Jan 2031
The medical room confirms 63 days on the sidelines for Stepan Degtev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout6 Jan 2031
The manager's exit leaves Márcio Oliveira exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Márcio Oliveira is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugout6 Jan 2031
Luke Simmons knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luke Simmons trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.