Marked for Danil Voitenko
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces18 Sep 2028
The mood at Akron 2 has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad18 Sep 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akron 2 may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad18 Sep 2028
A fracture rules Dedi Kusnandar out for 50 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akron 2 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Aug 2028
Maxim Kondakov is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Market7 Aug 2028
Add another name to the list: Strogino have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dmitry Teryaev. The answer from Akron 2 has not changed — yet.
Squad7 Aug 2028
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 May 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akron 2 may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market8 May 2028
Dedi Kusnandar has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Akron 2 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 May 2028
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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Akron 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mariano Buzzini 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.
Squad8 May 2028
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Market8 May 2028
Akron 2 have let the market know Danil Voitenko can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Feb 2028
Danil Voitenko: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ufa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Ufa
Danil Lipovoy 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Ufa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Kamilov 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.
Match5 Feb 2028
Rodina take the points off Ufa
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Feb 2028
No place for Filip Mrzljak on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Ufa pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Feb 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ufa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market7 Feb 2028
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Juan Pablo Curvino arrives from Avangard with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Market7 Feb 2028
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Nikita Kim leaves Ufa the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Ufa
Vladislav Kamilov 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.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
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.
Match28 Aug 2027
Chernomorets left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Migran Ageyan 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
28 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“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
Uneasy
Market12 Jul 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Artem Grigorjev is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Konstantin Tarnolitskiy 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.
In brief
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Squad
The manager makes an example of Artem Grigorjev
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Market
Ufa are about to pick up the phone
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Squad
Nazar Makeev falls out with a teammate over standards
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jul 2027
Irtysh come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Akron 2 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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 Akron 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Jul 2027
Add another name to the list: Ufa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Danil Voitenko. The answer from Akron 2 has not changed — yet.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Danila Ryzhkov commits to Akron 2 for another 4 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Rodion Kulyakhtin 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Kirill Bazhukhin is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
23 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.