Marked for Savely Protasov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Jul 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rubin have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Rubin
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Rubin is running low.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Rubin asked and Lokomotiv Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Everything agreed with Zenit, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad2 Jul 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 Rubin know it.
Market2 Jul 2029
Rubin get their man
The chase for Danil Ryazanov ended with $250.0K changing hands and Rostov out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad2 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dmitry Kabutov and Rubin agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Jul 2029
A row about effort at Rubin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Ignatjev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jun 2029
Rubin say no — this time
The offer from Legion for Savely Protasov 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words exchanged at Rubin
Yegor Teslenko 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.
Market18 Jun 2029
Dinamo Moscow are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Rubin will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Rubin training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anderson Arroyo 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.
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Rustam Khalnazarov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rubin have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Rubin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
The manager makes an example of Kareem Ahmed
“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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Rubin will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
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 Aleksandar Jukić is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
Pressure builds in the Rubin boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market4 Jun 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Savely Protasov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rubin the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jun 2029
A row about effort at Rubin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anderson Arroyo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market4 Jun 2029
A season away well spent by Ivan Ignatjev
34 games, 11 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Rubin now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Squad4 Jun 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Christian Caballero commits to Rubin for another 3 years.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
A promise honoured at Rubin
Something was said to Marvin Çuni and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
Evgeny Staver gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Evgeny Staver is on it.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
Marvin Çuni 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 Marvin Çuni trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 May 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Rubin
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market7 May 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rubin is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 May 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Anton Zabolotny and Rubin agree another 1 years.
Squad7 May 2029
Anderson Arroyo 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.
Squad7 May 2029
A falling-out at Rubin
Nikita Lobov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch7 May 2029
The goals keep arriving from Ivan Ignatjev’s exile
9 goals in 33 games at Oțelul Galați — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Rubin updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout7 May 2029
Evgeny Staver gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Evgeny Staver is on it.
Market7 May 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Rubin, another week without a signature from Igor Kalinin.
Squad7 May 2029
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Christian Caballero has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout9 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rubin may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market9 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rubin is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Tempers go at Rubin
Yegor Teslenko 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Rubin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Ignatjev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikita Lobov, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Too much change too quickly at Rubin
9 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 watch9 Apr 2029
The goals keep arriving from Ivan Ignatjev’s exile
9 goals in 29 games at Oțelul Galați — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Rubin updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
Evgeny Staver gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Evgeny Staver is on it.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
Marvin Çuni 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 Rubin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Mar 2029
“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.
Market12 Mar 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Savely Protasov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rubin the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Tempers go at Rubin
Nikita Vasiljev 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Anton Zabolotny commits to Rubin for another 1 years.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Anderson Arroyo 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 targets12 Mar 2029
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 Mar 2029
Too much change too quickly at Rubin
9 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 watch12 Mar 2029
26 appearances away from home and 9 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
Evgeny Staver gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Evgeny Staver is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Feb 2029
Full time on the season at Rubin
Position 13 on 32 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Market26 Feb 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rubin have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market26 Feb 2029
The deal that would have taken Nikita Vasiljev to Dinamo Moscow has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Rubin with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market26 Feb 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Rubin close the window on a squad of their own making
9 in and 7 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 targets26 Feb 2029
Krylya Sovetov wanted more than $720.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad26 Feb 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rubin can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad26 Feb 2029
A falling-out at Rubin
Nikita Vasiljev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets26 Feb 2029
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Rubin will try again when the window opens; Rostov may not be selling by then.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets12 Feb 2029
$320.0K settles it between the clubs for Anton Zabolotny
Rostov have accepted the money. What Rubin do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Match10 Feb 2029
The wait goes on for Rubin
5 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.
Market12 Feb 2029
Business is business: Nikita Korets goes
Nizhniy Novgorod paid $970.0K and Rubin took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Tempers go at Rubin
Yegor Teslenko 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
A row about effort at Rubin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dardan Shabanhaxhaj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Vladimir Sugrobov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rubin have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2029
Rubin asked and Shinnik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Oct 2028
Rubin through in the cup
A 2‑1 win over Dinamo Kirov, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match4 Oct 2028
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Amar Rahmanović scored in the 85th minute, Dinamo Kirov had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Rubin took the lot.
Match9 Oct 2028
Rubin sink to position 14
11 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Savely Protasov, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Amar Rahmanović, 34, rolls back the years — 8.16
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.16 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“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 Oct 2028
A falling-out at Rubin
Yegor Teslenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Rubin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anderson Arroyo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces9 Oct 2028
He is 17 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Feb 2028
“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.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Akhmat Grozny; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market14 Feb 2028
“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 Rubin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 Feb 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“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 Rubin know it.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Rubin
Yegor Teslenko 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Anderson Arroyo 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.
Boardroom14 Feb 2028
Volga will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Rinat Shakerov has pre-agreed a move to Rubin, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
Rubin asked and Fakel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Nov 2027
Cup progress for Rubin
A 1‑0 win over Tyumen, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad22 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Rubin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anderson Arroyo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces22 Nov 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 16-year-old it feels ownership of. Savely Protasov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match20 Nov 2027
Zenit take the points off Rubin
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Marked 7.95. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Rubin
Nikita Vasiljev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Evgeny Staver lets one through his hands
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Evgeny Staver is still paying for one afternoon at Rubin
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Rubin
Bogdan Jočić 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.
Match23 Oct 2027
At last: Rubin win one
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Sochi. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Bogdan Jočić gets it from the manager
“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.
Match23 Oct 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nazmi Gripshi. 1‑0 against Sochi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad25 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Rubin
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ruslan Bezrukov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Nobody on the pitch touched Nazmi Gripshi
7.75, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Rubin had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad25 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Savely Protasov and Rubin agree another 3 years.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
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.” Nikolay Kryukov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rubin, and both men came out saying it was fine.