From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jan 2028
Maxim Smolnikov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Amkar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market10 Jan 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Amkar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market10 Jan 2028
Edvinas Dapkus is 17, and Amkar have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad10 Jan 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Maxim Novikov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market10 Jan 2028
The name of Mikhail Sukhoruchenko keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Amkar say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Dec 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Amkar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Dec 2027
No place for Maxim Novikov on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Amkar pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Squad13 Dec 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Oct 2027
5 matches without a win for Amkar
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Amkar are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
142% of the income goes out in wages at Amkar
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.
Match30 Oct 2027
Amkar and Ural 2 take a point apiece
It finished 1-1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad1 Nov 2027
“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.
Market1 Nov 2027
The name of Kirill Korolkov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Amkar say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Andrey Pridyuk asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Oct 2027
Ruslan Angutaev: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Amkar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market18 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Amkar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match16 Oct 2027
Beaten 1-2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Lucas Barrera 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 Amkar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market18 Oct 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Amkar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match27 Sep 2027
Amkar are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 20 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match25 Sep 2027
Three points for Amkar, 1-0 the final word against Volna in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Loan watch27 Sep 2027
“I did not go to Dinamo Vologda to sit and watch. I want to come back to Amkar and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market27 Sep 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Amkar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Aug 2027
Amkar up to position 1
13 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market30 Aug 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 Amkar can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Aug 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.
Loan watch30 Aug 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Amkar, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Match28 Aug 2027
A 1-1 draw with KDV Tomsk leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market30 Aug 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Amkar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Nov 2026
Still nobody has beaten Amkar
The unbeaten run reaches 16. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ruslan Angutaev: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Amkar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match7 Nov 2026
Honours even between Amkar and Khimik
1-1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Alexandr Dolgov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Sep 2026
Still nobody has beaten Amkar
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market14 Sep 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Amkar have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 1-1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“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.
Market14 Sep 2026
The name of Islamzhan Nasyrov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Amkar say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad14 Sep 2026
At 26 he is in the side on merit and somebody else is watching from the bench. Places at Amkar are won quietly and lost loudly.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Market10 Aug 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Amkar signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ruslan Angutaev commits to Amkar for another 3 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Amkar will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.