“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rotor can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ilhan Fakili did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rotor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Irakly Manelov 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 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.
3 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.
Irakly Manelov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Troshechkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Said Aliev. 1‑0 against Chernomorets, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Arseny Spiridonov could afford to be generous.
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.
Ilhan Fakili, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.09
A mark of 8.09 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Troshechkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Dinamo Bryansk left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Pogudin 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.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout12 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 0‑1 Artem Savin left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Rotor 2, another week without a signature from Adrian Platon.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Ferretti 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Rotor 2 has been clear about where Luca Ferretti stands, which is more than many ever get.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Mikhail Tsipushtanov 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Rotor 2 has been clear about where Mikhail Tsipushtanov stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Pogudin 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.
13 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
0‑4 against Dinamo St Petersburg, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Adrian Platon 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 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 door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Sep 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 0‑4 Artem Savin left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexey Pogudin's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Ural had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nikita Plotnikov scored, was marked 7.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mikhail Tsipushtanov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexey Pogudin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 combined actions and 6.82. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Artem Savin could afford to be generous.
Adrian Platon wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Adrian Platon found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Spartak Tambov went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexey Pogudin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
0‑3 to Salyut, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Pogudin 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.
Dmitry Loktev 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.
12 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Spartak Kostroma had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Artem Savin after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Amirkhanyan 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 shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
The dugoutMaxim Maltsev knocks on the manager's door