Marked for Rustam Dolgorukov
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match5 Aug 2028
Nobody wins at Nart
26 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad7 Aug 2028
A fracture rules Ratmir Mashezov out for 37 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nart will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match5 Aug 2028
Nart cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
7.59, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Market7 Aug 2028
“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.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
The Nart board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad7 Aug 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 Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Aug 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Eldar Tkhakokhov. 2‑0 against Druzhba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market7 Aug 2028
Everyone has stopped pretending: Kolomna will make the call about Krystian Mucha this week. Nart have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match1 Nov 2027
Nart are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 33 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.42, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad1 Nov 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.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Nart
Alexandr Olenev 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Amir Djumaev 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nuno Rafael, and the manager let it.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Wages eat 131% of everything Nart 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.
Match30 Oct 2027
A 2‑2 draw with Rostov 2 leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 May 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 Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Nart training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev 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.
Boardroom24 May 2027
Nart counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Nart now.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Apr 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 Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Nart training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev 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.
Squad5 Apr 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
Upbeat
Match22 Feb 2027
Nart up to position 2
54 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad22 Feb 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 Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Nart training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev 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.