Marked for Timur Bulatsev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Mar 2027
Artem Zakirov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alania can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Alania
Alan Bagaev 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.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
The numbers do not look good at Alania
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad1 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Murat Yshyk
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Artem Zakirov knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 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 The request is on a desk at Alania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Jan 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Alan Bagaev 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 Alania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
Artem Zakirov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alania can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Jan 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Alania have had the benefit of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Nov 2026
David Kobesov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alania can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Alania
Ibragim 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anzor Amiraliev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Alania's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Alania has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Sep 2026
There were 7 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.
Market21 Sep 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Alan Bagaev 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 Alania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
David Kobesov knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 14, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A mark of 4.95 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Match19 Sep 2026
Point won or two lost for Alania?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Sibir? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Alania say no — this time
The offer from Druzhba for Spartak Gogniev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market17 Aug 2026
“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 Alania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Alania
Alan Bagaev 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 ratings17 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.62, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anzor Amiraliev, and the manager let it.
Match15 Aug 2026
Alania and Veles take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market17 Aug 2026
A conversation is coming this week. Alania will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market17 Aug 2026
Alania have let the market know Anzor Amiraliev can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market10 Aug 2026
Ruslan Bagaev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alania can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Alania
Alan Bagaev 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Amkar pay $31.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Makhach Abdulkhamidov, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Ruslan Bagaev again, and this time the name on the line is Torpedo Vladimir. Alania are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match8 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Dinamo Moscow 2, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Every debut is a small story about the future: Timur Bulatsev, 19 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.