Marked for Dmitry Loktev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Sep 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 15 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad1 Sep 2031
33 days out for Mikhail Lukjanov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rotor 2 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market1 Sep 2031
Rotor 2 say no — this time
The offer from Strogino for Stepan Pyatin was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad1 Sep 2031
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vsevolod Ostrovsky 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 ratings1 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad1 Sep 2031
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Rotor 2 will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout1 Sep 2031
Stepan Pyatin 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 Stepan Pyatin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings1 Sep 2031
14 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match30 Aug 2031
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Znamya Truda will be the happier side with the point.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Aug 2031
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad25 Aug 2031
A fracture rules Mikhail Lukjanov out for 40 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rotor 2 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match23 Aug 2031
0‑4 to Kvant, 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.
Market25 Aug 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikhail Lukjanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rotor 2 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match23 Aug 2031
Rotor 2 are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad25 Aug 2031
A row about effort at Rotor 2
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vsevolod Ostrovsky was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom25 Aug 2031
Doors closed at Rotor 2
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout25 Aug 2031
Danil Ryazanov 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 Danil Ryazanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market25 Aug 2031
Rotor 2 have let the market know Mikhail Lukjanov can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Aug 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 16 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match9 Aug 2031
Rodina 2 will want this one forgotten quickly: 7‑4, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Rotor 2 were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market11 Aug 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rotor 2 people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad11 Aug 2031
The match ball belongs to Denis Mironov, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings11 Aug 2031
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.10, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings11 Aug 2031
Vsevolod Ostrovsky, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.03
A mark of 8.03 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings11 Aug 2031
Dmitry Loktev did the work nobody counts — 6.84
17 combined actions and 6.84. 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.
Match9 Aug 2031
The drought breaks for Rotor 2
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Rodina 2 were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Jul 2031
68 days out for Mikhail Lukjanov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rotor 2 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad28 Jul 2031
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market28 Jul 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikhail Lukjanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rotor 2 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match26 Jul 2031
The wait goes on for Rotor 2
6 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.
Match26 Jul 2031
1‑3 to Rodina M, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Jul 2031
The manager makes an example of Denis Mironov
“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.
The dugout28 Jul 2031
Dmitry Loktev 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 Dmitry Loktev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Off the academy pitches and into a senior shirt, at 18. The parents in the stand will keep the programme, and so will he.
Market28 Jul 2031
Rotor 2 have let the market know Mikhail Lukjanov can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Jun 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rotor 2 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Jun 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yegor Danilkin and Rotor 2 agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Vsevolod Ostrovsky 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Jun 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor 2 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad2 Jun 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yegor Danilkin commits to Rotor 2 for another 2 years.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
“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
Crisis
Match12 May 2031
15 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market12 May 2031
“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.
Squad12 May 2031
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Dinamo Kirov will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad12 May 2031
Pavel Zemskov 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 dugout12 May 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Karimov, and the manager let it.
Market12 May 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikita Dorofeev signs something — a contract at Dinamo Kirov or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market12 May 2031
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Roman Rumyantsev may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout12 May 2031
Pyotr Pronin 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 Pyotr Pronin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom12 May 2031
The Dinamo Kirov academy earns its keep
41 graduates, from a department now rated 4 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom21 Apr 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Dinamo Kirov
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Nikita Poberezhny 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.
Boardroom21 Apr 2031
93% of the income goes out in wages at Dinamo Kirov
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.
Market21 Apr 2031
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Alexander Tankovic may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad21 Apr 2031
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Dinamo Kirov would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets10 Mar 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Amkar have kept their man, and Dinamo Kirov go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Loan watch10 Mar 2031
“I did not go to Chaika to sit and watch. I want to come back to Dinamo Kirov and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 37 matches say the rest.
Boardroom10 Mar 2031
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Squad10 Mar 2031
This league is too small for Dmitry Loktev
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Dinamo Kirov will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market10 Mar 2031
“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.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Vahid Karimi 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.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
Andrea Chukanov 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 Mar 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nikita Dorofeev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad10 Mar 2031
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Dinamo Kirov says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom24 Feb 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Dinamo Kirov
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market24 Feb 2031
“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 Dinamo Kirov, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom24 Feb 2031
Dinamo Kirov close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets24 Feb 2031
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.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Alexander Tankovic 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.
Boardroom24 Feb 2031
125% of the income goes out in wages at Dinamo Kirov
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.
Transfer targets24 Feb 2031
Rodina have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets24 Feb 2031
A loan enquiry to Rotor: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Feb 2031
79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market17 Feb 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dinamo Moscow waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rotor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market17 Feb 2031
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Spartak Nalchik had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market17 Feb 2031
“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.
Squad17 Feb 2031
70 days out for Andrés Salazar after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rotor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market17 Feb 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets17 Feb 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Fakel; Rotor go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Match15 Feb 2031
After 9 games, Rotor finally taste it again
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Ufa; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Transfer targets17 Feb 2031
Everything agreed with Dinamo Moscow, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
In brief
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Transfer targets
No thanks: Artem Zmeev rejects the move
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Squad
Tempers go at Rotor
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Squad
A row about effort at Rotor
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Feb 2031
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market3 Feb 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rotor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market3 Feb 2031
“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.
Market3 Feb 2031
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings3 Feb 2031
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match1 Feb 2031
Still nobody has beaten Rotor
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.
Market3 Feb 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Feb 2031
A falling-out at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
In brief
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Squad
A row about effort at Rotor
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Boardroom
$49.0K of the owner's money at Rotor
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Transfer targets
Door shut on Maxim Kutovoy
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match25 Jan 2031
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑0 against Alania, and it could have been more.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings27 Jan 2031
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market27 Jan 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market27 Jan 2031
“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.
The dugout27 Jan 2031
Leo Enzenross: 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.” Rotor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market27 Jan 2031
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Rotor have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match25 Jan 2031
Still nobody has beaten Rotor
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Words exchanged at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Rotor training over how hard people work
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Transfer targets
Rotor rebuffed over Ilja Pomazun
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Boardroom
Wages eat 148% of everything Rotor earn
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Jan 2031
98 days out for Andrés Salazar after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rotor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market20 Jan 2031
“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.
Market20 Jan 2031
Dmitry Loktev has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match18 Jan 2031
6 unbeaten for Rotor
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Rotor did not have in the autumn.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Words at Rotor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Gaponov 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.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Tempers go at Rotor
Danil Kapustyanskiy 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.
Squad20 Jan 2031
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.
Match18 Jan 2031
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Rotor had all but put away. Torpedo Moscow will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Player ratings20 Jan 2031
The afternoon belonged to Said Aliev
A mark of 7.55, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Dec 2030
A fracture rules Andrés Salazar out for 119 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rotor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market30 Dec 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings30 Dec 2030
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.99, and nobody on the pitch better.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
“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.
Boardroom30 Dec 2030
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Words exchanged at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Player ratings30 Dec 2030
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 7.50, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Words at Rotor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Letechin 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
Wages eat 139% of everything Rotor earn
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Danil Kapustyanskiy
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The dugout
The manager has not finished forgetting Dmitry Loktev's mistake
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Dec 2030
Andrés Salazar breaks a bone — 126 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market23 Dec 2030
“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.
Market23 Dec 2030
Only the photograph left for Dmitry Loktev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dmitry Loktev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rotor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Dec 2030
100 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Words at Rotor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Danilkin 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 Dec 2030
Tempers go at Rotor
Danil Kapustyanskiy 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.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
The manager makes an example of Yegor Danilkin
“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.
Match21 Dec 2030
It finished 1‑0, and it was Said Aliev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rotor.
Player ratings23 Dec 2030
A mark of 7.70, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
The plan did not have a place for Yegor Danilkin
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The dugout
When it matters, Fedor Motovilov plays
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Dec 2030
140 days out for Andrés Salazar after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rotor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market9 Dec 2030
“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.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings9 Dec 2030
A defender's goal wins it for Rotor — 7.66
1 for Alexandr Troshechkin, marked 7.66, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
“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.
Squad9 Dec 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alexandr Troshechkin commits to Rotor for another 2 years.
Squad9 Dec 2030
A falling-out at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Dec 2030
Rotor come up short against Rodina
Rodina left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
“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.
In brief
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Boardroom
The Rotor debt reaches $27.5M
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Player ratings
Artem Kriulskiy was unplayable
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Nov 2030
A fracture rules Andrés Salazar out for 154 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rotor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match20 Nov 2030
The cup run ends for Rotor
0‑1 against Sochi, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market25 Nov 2030
“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.
Market25 Nov 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rotor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings25 Nov 2030
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Tempers go at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Vitaly Letechin 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.
Match23 Nov 2030
Rotor get the job done against Fakel
A 1‑0 win over Fakel, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings25 Nov 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.08, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
In brief
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The dugout
Artur Nechaev gets it from the manager
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Vitaly Letechin asks for a word with the manager
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Oct 2030
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Oct 2030
29 days out for Nikita Chagrov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rotor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market28 Oct 2030
Dmitry Loktev has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Tempers go at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Abdurakhman Abdulaev has just signed for Rotor, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom28 Oct 2030
Belts tighten at Rotor
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Match26 Oct 2030
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danil Kapustyanskiy, and the manager let it.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Nikita Chagrov asks for a word with the manager
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The dugout
The plan did not have a place for Dmitry Loktev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Oct 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yegor Danilkin
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Oct 2030
A fracture rules Nikita Chagrov out for 43 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rotor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market14 Oct 2030
“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 Rotor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Oct 2030
A muscle injury sidelines Daniil Antsiperov for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Rotor will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad14 Oct 2030
A row about effort at Rotor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Letechin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
“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.
Market14 Oct 2030
“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 dugout14 Oct 2030
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 Fedor Motovilov is on it.
Looking ahead14 Oct 2030
Chernomorets next, and one man in the Rotor dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Sep 2030
Yegor Danilkin damages knee ligaments — 62 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 62 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad30 Sep 2030
A fracture rules Nikita Chagrov out for 57 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rotor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market30 Sep 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rotor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom30 Sep 2030
Rotor counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Rotor now.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Sep 2030
A row about effort at Rotor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Letechin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad30 Sep 2030
A falling-out at Rotor
Artur Nechaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitaly Letechin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Sep 2030
Yegor Danilkin damages knee ligaments — 69 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 69 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market23 Sep 2030
“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 Sep 2030
Tempers go at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Vitaly Letechin 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 dugout23 Sep 2030
“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.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
Marked 6.75 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Sep 2030
Yegor Danilkin damages knee ligaments — 90 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 90 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad2 Sep 2030
85 days out for Nikita Chagrov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rotor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market2 Sep 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rotor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market2 Sep 2030
Only the photograph left for Dmitry Loktev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dmitry Loktev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rotor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Belts tighten at Rotor
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Transfer targets2 Sep 2030
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at CSKA Moscow is saying, and nobody at Rotor is enjoying the guessing.
Squad2 Sep 2030
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.
Transfer targets2 Sep 2030
Rotor asked and Ural said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Vitaly Letechin 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Aug 2030
Yegor Danilkin damages knee ligaments — 104 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 104 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom19 Aug 2030
The caretaker keeps it: Interim Coach confirmed
A month of looking elsewhere ended where it started. He already knows every name in the building; the rest of it he now has to prove in public.
Market19 Aug 2030
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kuban Holding waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rotor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match17 Aug 2030
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Rotor scored in the 95th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad19 Aug 2030
The match ball belongs to Denis Mironov, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market19 Aug 2030
Rotor say no — this time
The offer from Chernomorets for Denis Mironov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market19 Aug 2030
“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.
Transfer targets19 Aug 2030
Rotor had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at CSKA Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Aug 2030
106 days out for Nikita Chagrov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rotor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market12 Aug 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rotor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market12 Aug 2030
Kuban Holding are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Rotor will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad12 Aug 2030
A row about effort at Rotor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Danilkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings12 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
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.
The dugout12 Aug 2030
The manager makes an example of Dmitry Loktev
“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.
Boardroom12 Aug 2030
117% of the income goes out in wages at Rotor
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Jul 2030
Nikita Chagrov breaks a bone — 120 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 120 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Jul 2030
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Dmitry Loktev had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market29 Jul 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rotor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom29 Jul 2030
Rotor counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Rotor now.
Market29 Jul 2030
“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.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
The deal with CSKA Moscow 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.
Match27 Jul 2030
4 matches without a win for Rotor
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Rotor are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom29 Jul 2030
Still no name above the door at Rotor
Day 14 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Market29 Jul 2030
Business is business: Anton Shitov goes
Baltika paid $44.0K and Rotor took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom22 Jul 2030
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Squad22 Jul 2030
127 days out for Nikita Chagrov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rotor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom22 Jul 2030
An empty coaching office at Rotor
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
Boardroom22 Jul 2030
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
The dugout22 Jul 2030
“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.
Market22 Jul 2030
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Rotor have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
The deal with Rodina died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Rotor have done the hard part with Lokomotiv Moscow, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Baltika is saying, and nobody at Rotor is enjoying the guessing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom1 Jul 2030
Pressure builds in the Rotor boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom1 Jul 2030
The numbers do not look good at Rotor
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.
Market1 Jul 2030
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Rotor have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market1 Jul 2030
“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.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Tempers go at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sochi have kept their man, and Rotor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout1 Jul 2030
The manager makes an example of Dmitry Loktev
“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.
Squad1 Jul 2030
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Denis Mironov has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
A loan move for Timur Kraikov is in the works
Rotor have made the call to Orenburg. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom10 Jun 2030
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Danil Ryazanov has agreed terms with Rostov for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Words at Rotor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Letechin 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.
Squad10 Jun 2030
A falling-out at Rotor
Artur Nechaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 Jun 2030
The manager makes an example of Denis Mironov
“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.
The dugout10 Jun 2030
Yegor Danilkin 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 Rotor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market10 Jun 2030
The Said Aliev talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rotor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
The scrutiny sharpens at Rotor
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Rotor is running low.
Market3 Jun 2030
Danil Ryazanov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
The numbers do not look good at Rotor
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.
Squad3 Jun 2030
A row about effort at Rotor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Letechin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Tempers go at Rotor
Danil Kapustyanskiy 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.
Market3 Jun 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Rotor, another week without a signature from Nikita Chagrov.
Squad3 Jun 2030
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Rotor will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout3 Jun 2030
Denis Mironov 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 Denis Mironov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 May 2030
“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 dugout13 May 2030
“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.
Squad13 May 2030
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.
Squad13 May 2030
Vitaly Letechin 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.
Squad13 May 2030
Dmitry Loktev has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Rotor will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout13 May 2030
Dmitry Loktev 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.
The dugout13 May 2030
“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.
Market13 May 2030
The Said Aliev talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rotor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout13 May 2030
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom6 May 2030
Pressure builds in the Rotor boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market6 May 2030
Only the photograph left for Danil Ryazanov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danil Ryazanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rotor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 May 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alexandr Troshechkin commits to Rotor for another 2 years.
Boardroom6 May 2030
Belts tighten at Rotor
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad6 May 2030
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.
Squad6 May 2030
A row about effort at Rotor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Letechin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout6 May 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Loktev, and the manager let it.
Squad6 May 2030
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Vadim Tskhadiashvili is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout6 May 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitaly Letechin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Apr 2030
Words exchanged at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin 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 dugout29 Apr 2030
The manager makes an example of Yegor Danilkin
“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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
8 new faces, and Rotor are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Loan watch29 Apr 2030
“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 Rotor, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Words at Rotor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Pandula 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 dugout29 Apr 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitaly Letechin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Apr 2030
Words exchanged at Rotor
Sergey Bozhin 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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
A row about effort at Rotor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Letechin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vitaly Letechin, and the manager let it.
Boardroom22 Apr 2030
Wages eat 132% of everything Rotor earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
Yegor Danilkin 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 Rotor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
Artem Kriulskiy has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rotor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market22 Apr 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Troshechkin signs something — a contract at Rotor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Dmitry Loktev has written the date down.
Squad22 Apr 2030
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Rotor has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Apr 2030
Yeremi Valerón damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Tempers go at Rotor
Sergey Bozhin 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.
Squad15 Apr 2030
A row about effort at Rotor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Letechin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Apr 2030
A promise honoured at Rotor
Something was said to Artem Kriulskiy and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Market15 Apr 2030
“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.
The dugout15 Apr 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mikhail Lukjanov, and the manager let it.
Market15 Apr 2030
The Said Aliev talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rotor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout15 Apr 2030
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 Daniel Pandula is on it.
The dugout15 Apr 2030
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Apr 2030
Yeremi Valerón damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words exchanged at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at Rotor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Loktev 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.
Market1 Apr 2030
“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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Too much change too quickly at Rotor
8 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.
Loan watch1 Apr 2030
“I did not go to Spartak Moscow to sit and watch. I want to come back to Rotor and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Market1 Apr 2030
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Danil Ryazanov has his answer from Rotor; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
The manager makes an example of Dennis Boni
“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.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Mar 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yeremi Valerón
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad25 Mar 2030
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
“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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
A falling-out at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Dennis Boni arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Dennis Boni has, at Rotor, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Match23 Mar 2030
0‑2 to Dinamo Moscow 2, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom25 Mar 2030
Wages swallow 129% of the Rotor income
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 dugout25 Mar 2030
The team sheet said everything about Dmitry Loktev
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Dmitry Loktev.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
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 0‑2 Evgeni Barinov left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Mar 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings18 Mar 2030
Two goals and a mark of 9.15 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad18 Mar 2030
A falling-out at Rotor
Vitaly Letechin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Semyon Cherepanov has just signed for Rotor, and for once the answer mattered.
Match16 Mar 2030
Three points for Rotor, 3‑1 the final word against Fakel in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words at Rotor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Danilkin 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 terraces18 Mar 2030
He is 22 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.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vitaly Letechin, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑1, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Mar 2030
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Match2 Mar 2030
Rotor throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Volga the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Rotor will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings4 Mar 2030
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alexandr Troshechkin scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Match2 Mar 2030
4 matches without a win for Rotor
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Rotor are no longer polite ones.
Squad4 Mar 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ilja Rodionov and Rotor agree another 4 years.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Words exchanged at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
A row about effort at Rotor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Danilkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Loktev, and the manager let it.
Player ratings4 Mar 2030
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Feb 2030
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pobeda waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rotor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
Two goals and a mark of 8.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Transfer targets18 Feb 2030
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Moscow is saying, and nobody at Rotor is enjoying the guessing.
Market18 Feb 2030
The phone has started ringing about Denis Mironov again, and this time the name on the line is Volna. Rotor are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad18 Feb 2030
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.
Match16 Feb 2030
Spartak Kostroma left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Words at Rotor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Danilkin 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.
Transfer targets18 Feb 2030
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.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
The manager makes an example of Sergey Bozhin
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Feb 2030
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” KDV Tomsk had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market4 Feb 2030
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Fakel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rotor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad4 Feb 2030
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market4 Feb 2030
Bekescsaba come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Rotor did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market4 Feb 2030
“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 Rotor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets4 Feb 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Rotor have done the hard part with Orenburg, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Tempers go at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Yegor Danilkin 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.
Transfer targets4 Feb 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Moscow have kept their man, and Rotor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Jan 2030
“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.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2030
Everything agreed with Lokomotiv Moscow, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market28 Jan 2030
Add another name to the list: Fakel have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Denis Mironov. The answer from Rotor has not changed — yet.
Market28 Jan 2030
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Rotor will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad28 Jan 2030
A row about effort at Rotor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Danilkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Tempers go at Rotor
Sergey Bozhin 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.
Match26 Jan 2030
It finished 2‑1, and it was Gleb Bakharev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rotor.
Boardroom28 Jan 2030
122% of the income goes out in wages at Rotor
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 ratings28 Jan 2030
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jan 2030
Danil Ryazanov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Words exchanged at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Boardroom14 Jan 2030
Belts tighten at Rotor
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Words at Rotor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Danilkin 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 ratings14 Jan 2030
Marked 8.28 — 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.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Rotor told Denis Mironov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Match12 Jan 2030
A 1‑1 draw with Torpedo Moscow leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
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 Artem Kriulskiy is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Jan 2030
Rotor say no — this time
The offer from Vihren for Márk Szelényi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The dugout7 Jan 2030
“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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Tempers go at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Yegor Danilkin 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.
Match5 Jan 2030
A bad afternoon for Rotor against Shinnik
0‑2 to Shinnik, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout7 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Loktev, and the manager let it.
The dugout7 Jan 2030
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Said Aliev named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Said Aliev is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Jan 2030
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mykhailo Khomych is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Dec 2029
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market17 Dec 2029
Danil Ryazanov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Words exchanged at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Boardroom17 Dec 2029
Belts tighten at Rotor
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Words at Rotor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Danilkin 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 dugout17 Dec 2029
The manager makes an example of Denis Mironov
“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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Rotor know it.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Evgeni Barinov was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Rotor dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Rotor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Danilkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match8 Dec 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
“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 Dec 2029
A falling-out at Rotor
Glenis Belloj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Dec 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Rotor, another week without a signature from Yegor Danilkin.
Squad10 Dec 2029
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Rotor know it.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Evgeni Barinov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
Yegor Danilkin is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad10 Dec 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Nov 2029
The small margins put Rotor out
Out, 0‑2 to Torpedo Moscow, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market26 Nov 2029
Only the photograph left for Denis Mironov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Mironov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rotor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match24 Nov 2029
The wait goes on for Rotor
4 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
A falling-out at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Nov 2029
A row about effort at Rotor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Danilkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match24 Nov 2029
0‑2 to Dinamo Moscow 2, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
The manager makes an example of Dmitry Loktev
“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.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
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 0‑2 Evgeni Barinov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. 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
Market19 Nov 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rotor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words exchanged at Rotor
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Boardroom19 Nov 2029
Belts tighten at Rotor
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Yegor Danilkin 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 dugout19 Nov 2029
The manager makes an example of Márk Szelényi
“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.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Looking ahead19 Nov 2029
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Yegor Danilkin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Rotor needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market19 Nov 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Rotor, another week without a signature from Glenis Belloj.
Market19 Nov 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dmitry Loktev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Oct 2029
Only the photograph left for Denis Mironov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Mironov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rotor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at Rotor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Danilkin 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.
Match27 Oct 2029
Volga made Rotor work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
“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.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Marked 8.09 — 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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Tempers go at Rotor
Glenis Belloj 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.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Evgeni Barinov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Market29 Oct 2029
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Malo Bartolomeu has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Rotor.