Marked for Danila Rulev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Supporters organise against the Zvezda board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match25 Jan 2027
Every point is an argument now for Zvezda
Position 14 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market25 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Zvezda
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.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Igor Smirnov goes up and wins it — 7.67
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.67 for the rest of it.
Match23 Jan 2027
Zvezda leaking at the back
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Zvezda
Yegor Balitskiy 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
Yenisey 2 left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zvezda can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Jan 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 Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Igor Smirnov 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
A bad afternoon for Zvezda against Irkutsk
0‑2 to Irkutsk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Looking ahead11 Jan 2027
Zvezda face Cherepovets in the game that matters most
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Roman Zaitsev
“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 dugout11 Jan 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nikolai Chesnokov after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Petr Timofeev 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 ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 10. 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
Crisis
Match12 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Zvezda
17 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
A hiding for Zvezda
Beaten 0‑6 by Zenit 2, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market14 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zvezda may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match12 Dec 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Zvezda and Zenit 2, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match12 Dec 2026
Zvezda cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Zvezda
Denis Lebedev 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Iljas Abdullaev, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Squad
A row about effort at Zvezda
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Looking ahead
Everything rides on Chertanovo
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Boardroom
Doors closed at Zvezda
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Zvezda
16 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.
Market7 Dec 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 Zvezda can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zvezda may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Zvezda
Yegor Balitskiy 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 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Artem Kolobov commits to Zvezda for another 3 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Zvezda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Smirnov 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
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.
Market7 Dec 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Miroslav Terekhov has his answer from Zvezda; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danila Rulev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Zvezda
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Fedor Semenov breaks a bone — 14 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match5 Oct 2026
Every point is an argument now for Zvezda
Position 13 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market5 Oct 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Zvezda
Yegor Balitskiy 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Zvezda
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Smirnov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Nikolai Chesnokov left the room before anybody could ask which.