Marked for Dmitry Loktev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
“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.
Market26 Apr 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rotor 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Maxim Khramtsov 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Jan 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rotor 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Nikita Plotnikov 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Andrey Khityaev 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 terraces25 Jan 2027
The crowd has taken to Yegor Tarin
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match23 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pavel Gorelov. 1‑0 against Dinamo Bryansk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Marked 8.18 — 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Alexey Pogudin has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Rotor 2.
Squad25 Jan 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad25 Jan 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
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
Salyut left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 Aug 2026
Rotor 2 make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Rotor 2 have 3 straight wins of it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexandr Khubulov. 1‑0 against Znamya Truda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Maxim Khramtsov 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Rotor 2 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Kvant, and it could have been more.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Amirkhanyan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexey Pogudin and Rotor 2 agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Timofey Falchenko 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 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Rotor 2
11 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Rotor 2 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.