Marked for René Fuentes
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market13 Aug 2029
“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.
Market13 Aug 2029
Rubin say no — this time
The offer from Zenit Penza for Savely Protasov 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.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad13 Aug 2029
A falling-out at Rubin
Maxim Turischev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Too much change too quickly at Rubin
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad13 Aug 2029
A row about effort at Rubin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Ignatjev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match11 Aug 2029
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mohamed Konaté is on it.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
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.” Nikolay Kryukov chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Jul 2029
“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 dugout23 Jul 2029
“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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Marvin Çuni 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 Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
The manager makes an example of Evgeny Staver
“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.
Match21 Jul 2029
Rubin come up short against Zenit
Zenit left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at Rubin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Ignatjev 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 dugout23 Jul 2029
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Nikolay Kryukov to a room that had heard them before.
Squad23 Jul 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rodion Cheryshev commits to Rubin for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Apr 2029
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Rubin are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Rubin
Nikita Vasiljev 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 dugout30 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Rubin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Ignatjev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
Anderson Arroyo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rubin will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Loan watch30 Apr 2029
Alexandr Degtev’s loan is measured in nothing happening
7 clean sheets from 29 appearances at Hermannstadt. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Market30 Apr 2029
Rubin have made Anderson Arroyo available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Loan watch30 Apr 2029
27 appearances at Ufa, an average of 5.99, and two clubs quietly wishing they had not bothered. Loans are supposed to answer questions; this one only added them.
Squad30 Apr 2029
René Fuentes: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Rubin will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Apr 2029
A falling-out at Rubin
Yegor Teslenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Rubin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anderson Arroyo 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 dugout23 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kareem Ahmed, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Aleksandar Jukić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rubin will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Kareem Ahmed has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Rubin will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Rubin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anderson Arroyo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
Mohamed Konaté has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rubin will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
Marvin Çuni 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 Rubin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Loan watch16 Apr 2029
27 appearances at Ufa and the goals have stopped going in. Rubin lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Market16 Apr 2029
The name of Ilja Rozhkov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Rubin say nothing, which says plenty.
Loan watch16 Apr 2029
The goals keep arriving from Daniil Motorin’s exile
4 goals in 22 games at Sochi — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Rubin updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Market16 Apr 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Aleksandar Jukić may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad16 Apr 2029
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout9 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rubin may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market9 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rubin is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Tempers go at Rubin
Yegor Teslenko 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Rubin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Ignatjev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikita Lobov, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Too much change too quickly at Rubin
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Loan watch9 Apr 2029
The goals keep arriving from Ivan Ignatjev’s exile
9 goals in 29 games at Oțelul Galați — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Rubin updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
Evgeny Staver gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Evgeny Staver is on it.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
Marvin Çuni 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 Rubin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Oct 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rubin will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad30 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Rubin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anderson Arroyo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match28 Oct 2028
Late, late show earns Rubin a point
Minute 88, against Akhmat, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
“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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
A falling-out at Rubin
Amar Rahmanović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
Veldin Hodža gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Veldin Hodža is on it.
Match28 Oct 2028
It needed Mohamed Konaté to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Akhmat, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
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.” Nikolay Kryukov chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Jul 2028
Rubin make home a hard place to visit
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
$1.0M on the table at Akhmat Grozny. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market17 Jul 2028
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Rubin
Denil Maldonado 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
A move René Fuentes would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. René Fuentes is living that version at Rubin, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Rubin
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market17 Jul 2028
The phone has started ringing about Alexey Kenyaikin again, and this time the name on the line is Arsenal Tula. Rubin are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad17 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Rubin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anderson Arroyo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match15 Jul 2028
The goals have deserted Rubin
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Rubin can tell you which week it ends in.