Marked for Ryan Aboal
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Mar 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 Uralets-TS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Denis Osokin 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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Uralets-TS will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Market27 Mar 2028
The name of Denis Khvostovich keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Uralets-TS say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Uralets-TS. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Jan 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Uralets-TS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market31 Jan 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Uralets-TS, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Jan 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Uralets-TS have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
“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.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
The deal with Volna is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Evgeniy Sakuta 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.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Uralets-TS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Majeed Oseni 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.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2027
Yury Petrovskiy 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Uralets-TS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rustam Vazitdinov 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 dugout11 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
Market11 Oct 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Rohan Vaughan’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market11 Oct 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Uralets-TS, another week without a signature from Maxim Vertiev.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Jun 2027
Rohan Vaughan has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uralets-TS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market7 Jun 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Denis Osokin breaks a bone — 17 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Jun 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Uralets-TS will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Rustam Vazitdinov 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.