Marked for David Kokoev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Nosta
Adrián Urban and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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 dugout18 Jan 2027
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.
Market18 Jan 2027
The name of Alil Magomedov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Nosta say nothing, which says plenty.
The terraces18 Jan 2027
Supporters make their feelings known about Nikita Rozhkov
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Nosta would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
Market18 Jan 2027
7 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Nosta could get for him.
Squad18 Jan 2027
The training reports on Danila Boiko are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Jan 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑0 against Ural 2, and it could have been more.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
No sign of nerves from Adrián Urban at 21 — 8.40
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Adrián Urban did not need any: 8.40, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A season average of 7.30 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Nikita Rozhkov at his very best
Marked 9.99. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Nosta.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Nosta
Stanislav Irshev 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 ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match2 Jan 2027
The drought breaks for Nosta
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Ural 2 were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
Nosta supporters have found a favourite in David Kokoev
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. David Kokoev 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Nosta's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nosta has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Dec 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 Nosta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Dec 2026
The goals have deserted Nosta
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Nosta can tell you which week it ends in.
Match26 Dec 2026
Krylya Sovetov 2 left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Dec 2026
11 goals and a season average of 7.21. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages swallow 103% of the Nosta 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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Rostislav Nikolayev after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout28 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Dec 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
5 matches without a win for Nosta
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Nosta are no longer polite ones.
The dugout21 Dec 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Nikita Rozhkov 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
David Kokoev 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Rostislav Nikolayev after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Danila Boiko 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 ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Nosta
Adrián Urban 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Nosta had all but put away. Chelyabinsk 2 will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 7.98 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Nosta had the best player on the pitch.
Market7 Dec 2026
“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.
Match5 Dec 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Chelyabinsk 2 leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ivan Pchelintsev is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout7 Dec 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.” Rostislav Nikolayev chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Arseny Vainer 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Arseny Vainer moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Nosta than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Nov 2026
7 unbeaten for Nosta
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Nosta did not have in the autumn.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Nosta
Dmitry Chamzhaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Nosta
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Rozhkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match7 Nov 2026
Rubin 2 made Nosta work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Nikita Rozhkov
9 goals and a season average of 7.22 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Rostislav Nikolayev on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Shalonikov, and the manager let it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
David Kokoev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Nosta 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
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.11, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad12 Oct 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout12 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Nosta 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nikolay Tyulenev is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Nosta
Adrián Urban 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Nikita Rozhkov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Nosta.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nosta can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Nosta
Dmitry Chamzhaev 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Nosta come up short against Khimik
Khimik left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Transfer targets21 Sep 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yegor Abakumov, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Every debut is a small story about the future: Vladislav Belousov, 15 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nosta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Sep 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ivan Pchelintsev had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Nosta until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad14 Sep 2026
44 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Nosta asked and KAMAZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Innokentiy Fedoseev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tikhon Ryazantsev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nosta, another week without a signature from Mutaalim Magomedov.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Rostislav Nikolayev after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2026
Nosta out of the cup
Dinamo Vladivostok ended it 1‑5. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
1-5. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
David Kokoev, 19, steals the show — 7.65
Marked 7.65 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market24 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.
Match19 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Nosta
4 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.
Match19 Aug 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Nosta and Dinamo Vladivostok in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KAMAZ have kept their man, and Nosta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Adrián Urban 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 Nosta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.