8 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.
Arseny Dmitriev 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Akron 2 and Volna in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Radomir Baranovsky after 2‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 4 saves does not settle it either way.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Fedor Fenin signs something — a contract at Akron 2 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akron 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 19 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.
“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.
The dugout21 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.” Radomir Baranovsky chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Arseny Dmitriev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Nosta? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akron 2 can pretend not to have heard.
5 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Akron 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yomar Rocha 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.38, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Arseny Dmitriev 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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Yomar Rocha 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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Fedor Fenin, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.90
A mark of 7.90 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.
14 combined actions and 6.55. 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.
Vyacheslav Vinnikov 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.
He is 19 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.
18 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Radomir Baranovsky could afford to be generous.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Sevastjan Kachura 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.
“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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Radomir Baranovsky to a room that had heard them before.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Yomar Rocha 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akron 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 19 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Dmitry Teryaev is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Radomir Baranovsky after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
A 1‑0 win over Ural 2, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Radomir Baranovsky kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Akron 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Akron 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arseny Dmitriev 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.
Nobody at Akron 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Akron 2 people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sevastjan Kachura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Akron 2 than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Tamerlan Kuzmenko may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” KAMAZ had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
1 for Vyacheslav Vinnikov, marked 7.67, 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.
Konstantin Tarnolitskiy 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Pestryakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.