Marked for Roman Protsenko
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Sep 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 Sep 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 The request is on a desk at Rubin Yalta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Sep 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 Rubin Yalta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Danila Polshikov 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.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
90% of the income goes out in wages at Rubin Yalta
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Yegor Biryukov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yegor Biryukov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Aug 2028
A fracture rules Valery Fedosyuk out for 77 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rubin Yalta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match26 Aug 2028
11 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin Yalta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Aug 2028
Maxim Yedapin hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin Yalta can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
The numbers do not look good at Rubin Yalta
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad28 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 Rubin Yalta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Rubin Yalta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr 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.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
A mark of 7.76, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Aug 2028
A fracture rules Valery Fedosyuk out for 84 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rubin Yalta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Aug 2028
10 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin Yalta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match16 Aug 2028
Spartak Tambov ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Match19 Aug 2028
8 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.
Market21 Aug 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 Rubin Yalta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Roman Protsenko is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Maxim Yedapin 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.
Match19 Aug 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Aug 2028
A fracture rules Valery Fedosyuk out for 91 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rubin Yalta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Aug 2028
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin Yalta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Aug 2028
No end in sight to Rubin Yalta's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Rubin Yalta has to find a result from somewhere.
Market14 Aug 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin Yalta can pretend not to have heard.
Match12 Aug 2028
6 matches without a goal for Rubin Yalta
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 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 Rubin Yalta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Francisco Guedes has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Market14 Aug 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vladislav Petukhov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Jul 2028
A fracture rules Valery Fedosyuk out for 112 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rubin Yalta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Jul 2028
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin Yalta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market24 Jul 2028
Georgy Tuaev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin Yalta can pretend not to have heard.
Match22 Jul 2028
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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Roman Protsenko is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Maxim Yedapin 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.
Match22 Jul 2028
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.
Match22 Jul 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Oct 2027
No end in sight to Rubin Yalta's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Rubin Yalta has to find a result from somewhere.
Match30 Oct 2027
The goals have deserted Rubin Yalta
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Rubin Yalta can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad1 Nov 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 Rubin Yalta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
106% of the income goes out in wages at Rubin Yalta
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Nov 2027
“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 Yalta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Aug 2027
Maxim Yedapin decides it from twelve yards
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.
Match18 Aug 2027
A 2‑2 win over Spartak Tambov, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match21 Aug 2027
6 matches without a win for Rubin Yalta
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Rubin Yalta are no longer polite ones.
Market23 Aug 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.
Squad23 Aug 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 Rubin Yalta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Rubin Yalta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Yedapin, and the manager let it.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match18 Aug 2027
Rubin Yalta hit back inside 1 minutes
Spartak Tambov held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Rubin Yalta answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jun 2027
“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 Rubin Yalta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Danil Polyakh 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Rubin Yalta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr 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.