Marked for Yegor Teterlev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Oct 2035
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rodina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market29 Oct 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at Rodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rodina may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market29 Oct 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rodina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Words exchanged at Rodina
Dmitry Markitesov 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.
Match27 Oct 2035
Ufa take the points off Rodina
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to William Torvik, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gleb Bondarenko after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2035
Rodina march on in the cup
Irkutsk are out and Rodina go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Market8 Oct 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at Rodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings8 Oct 2035
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings8 Oct 2035
A debut Egor Stolyarov will not forget — 7.21
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.21 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
The dugout8 Oct 2035
This is not rotation. Denis Tikhonov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Rodina is pretending otherwise.
Player ratings8 Oct 2035
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.91, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings8 Oct 2035
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market8 Oct 2035
Only the photograph left for Luka Zheleznov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luka Zheleznov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rodina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Oct 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dmitry Markitesov and Rodina agree another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Oct 2035
A fracture rules Timofey Baranov out for 19 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rodina will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Oct 2035
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.
Market1 Oct 2035
Only the photograph left for Edward Graham
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Edward Graham will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rodina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Oct 2035
Words exchanged at Rodina
Dmitry Markitesov 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.
Match29 Sep 2035
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yegor Teterlev. 1‑0 against Spartak Moscow 2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings1 Oct 2035
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.01, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout1 Oct 2035
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Gleb Bondarenko could afford to be generous.
Player ratings1 Oct 2035
A defender's afternoon for Diego Dufort
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market1 Oct 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Rodina, another week without a signature from William Torvik.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match11 Aug 2035
0‑3 to Dinamo Moscow 2, 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.
Market13 Aug 2035
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rodina have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout13 Aug 2035
This is not rotation. Denis Tikhonov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Rodina is pretending otherwise.
Market13 Aug 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rodina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Aug 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2035
The offer went to Akron this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad13 Aug 2035
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Boardroom13 Aug 2035
Doors closed at Rodina
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 dugout13 Aug 2035
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets6 Aug 2035
The clubs have shaken hands with Orenburg; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market6 Aug 2035
“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 Rodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market6 Aug 2035
Edward Graham has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rodina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2035
The deal with Orenburg 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.
Squad6 Aug 2035
Tempers go at Rodina
Dmitry Markitesov 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.
Match4 Aug 2035
Three points for Rodina, 3‑2 the final word against Akron 2 in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akron have kept their man, and Rodina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces6 Aug 2035
He is 23 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.
Player ratings6 Aug 2035
Marked 8.11 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Mar 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rodina can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings12 Mar 2035
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market12 Mar 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rodina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Words exchanged at Rodina
Dmitry Markitesov 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.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Words at Rodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Magomedkhabib Abdusalamov 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 ratings12 Mar 2035
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Mar 2035
It finished 2‑1, and it was Dmitry Markitesov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rodina.
Player ratings12 Mar 2035
A performance of 8.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match10 Mar 2035
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Dmitry Markitesov had Rodina level again within 3 minutes, and SKA Khabarovsk never got to play with a lead at all.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout15 Jan 2035
Edward Graham: 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.” Rodina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings15 Jan 2035
A hand in 2 of them from Yegor Teterlev — 7.93
Marked 7.93. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Words exchanged at Rodina
Dmitry Markitesov 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.
Match13 Jan 2035
Sokol made Rodina work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad15 Jan 2035
A row about effort at Rodina
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Magomedkhabib Abdusalamov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Jan 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Quentin Beunardeau, and the manager let it.
Player ratings15 Jan 2035
Denis Tikhonov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout15 Jan 2035
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Gleb Bondarenko could afford to be generous.
The dugout15 Jan 2035
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 Magomedkhabib Abdusalamov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Dec 2034
Words exchanged at Rodina
Dmitry Markitesov 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.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Words at Rodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Simonov 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 terraces11 Dec 2034
At 20 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.
Match9 Dec 2034
Zarya Lugansk made Rodina work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad11 Dec 2034
50 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Player ratings11 Dec 2034
A performance of 8.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout11 Dec 2034
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.” Gleb Bondarenko, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout11 Dec 2034
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 Magomedkhabib Abdusalamov is on it.
Looking ahead11 Dec 2034
The leaders are next for Rodina
Dinamo Moscow 2 top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings13 Nov 2034
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match11 Nov 2034
7 unbeaten for Rodina
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Rodina did not have in the autumn.
Squad13 Nov 2034
Tempers go at Rodina
Quentin Beunardeau 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.
Squad13 Nov 2034
Words at Rodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Magomedkhabib Abdusalamov 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.
Match11 Nov 2034
Shinnik made Rodina work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings13 Nov 2034
Yegor Teterlev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad13 Nov 2034
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Rodina are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout13 Nov 2034
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Rodina told Kirill Simonov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout13 Nov 2034
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gleb Bondarenko on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets28 Aug 2034
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Rodina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2034
Rodina and Krylya Sovetov have settled on $81.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market28 Aug 2034
Add another name to the list: Zarya Lugansk have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Vladimir Pavlov. The answer from Rodina has not changed — yet.
The dugout28 Aug 2034
Marc Dupont: 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.” Rodina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market28 Aug 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rodina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2034
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Krasnodar is saying, and nobody at Rodina is enjoying the guessing.
Squad28 Aug 2034
A falling-out at Rodina
Maximiliano Añasco and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Aug 2034
Rodina come up short against Sokol
Sokol left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Aug 2034
“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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Player ratings
The game went through Yegor Teterlev — 7.97
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Squad
A row about effort at Rodina
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Apr 2034
“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 Rodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout10 Apr 2034
Tamaz Topuria: 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.” Rodina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 Apr 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2034
Denis Tikhonov 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 dugout10 Apr 2034
Nobody at Rodina 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.
Market10 Apr 2034
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Rodina, another week without a signature from Yegor Teterlev.
The dugout10 Apr 2034
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market10 Apr 2034
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Magomedkhabib Abdusalamov signs something — a contract at Rodina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout10 Apr 2034
Eldar Bliev 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 Eldar Bliev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Mar 2034
Rodina are in real trouble now
Position 16, 5 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Boardroom6 Mar 2034
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom6 Mar 2034
Crisis meeting at Rodina
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market6 Mar 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rodina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets6 Mar 2034
Rodina asked and Rubin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad6 Mar 2034
Tempers go at Rodina
Dmitry Markitesov 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.
Squad6 Mar 2034
Denis Tikhonov 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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2034
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Transfer targets6 Mar 2034
Rodina ran out of time with Dinamo Makhachkala. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Jan 2034
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.
Squad16 Jan 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jan 2034
Words at Rodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Tikhonov 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.
Match14 Jan 2034
Spartak Moscow left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout16 Jan 2034
“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.
The dugout16 Jan 2034
“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.
The dugout16 Jan 2034
Leo Goglichidze 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.
The dugout16 Jan 2034
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 Magomedkhabib Abdusalamov is on it.
Market16 Jan 2034
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Magomedkhabib Abdusalamov signs something — a contract at Rodina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.