The Kuban Gazette
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Kuban
Ilja Bykovskiy 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Ilja Molteninov 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Home is on Ivandro Silva's mind
“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; Kuban are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
No hiding place for Fabio González
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabio González, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Mykyta Khimichev 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 Mykyta Khimichev is on it.
Match15 Nov 2027
Kuban in the hunt for Europe
Position 4, 24 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“I want to play”: Evgeny Kovalevskiy speaks
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Market15 Nov 2027
The Ilja Molteninov question follows Kuban around
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ilja Molteninov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Milan Rongy 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 Kuban, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
- Loan watch Sevastopol cannot leave Alexandr Kulikov out
- Looking ahead Kuban host Dinamo Kirov