Marked for Ilya Kolmogorov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Ilya Kolmogorov out for 19 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Makhachkala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Houssem Mrezigue 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 ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Akron, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Time is catching up with Felipe
Everybody at Dinamo Makhachkala saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 39 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Smelov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Fedot Dolgikh after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yegor Smelov, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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 Nikita Glushkov is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
26 days out for Ilya Kolmogorov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Makhachkala will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market12 Oct 2026
Rodrigo Godoy hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Makhachkala can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Houssem Mrezigue and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Timur Abdrashitov 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. Timur Abdrashitov has, at Dinamo Makhachkala, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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 dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
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 dugout12 Oct 2026
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 dugout12 Oct 2026
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 Vladimir Khubulov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 43. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match30 Sep 2026
A 2‑1 win over Znamya Truda, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match5 Oct 2026
7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Ilya Kolmogorov out for 34 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Makhachkala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Nikita Glushkov pops up at the right end — 7.28
7.28, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Transfer targets5 Oct 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad5 Oct 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 Dinamo Makhachkala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I watch every Dinamo Makhachkala game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Volga runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Kirill Zinovich 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Ilya Kolmogorov out for 41 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Makhachkala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Mutalip Alibekov: 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.” Dinamo Makhachkala have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“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 Dinamo Makhachkala know it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Houssem Mrezigue 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 targets28 Sep 2026
Dinamo Makhachkala asked and Crvena Zvezda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Ramazan Aliev
“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.
Market28 Sep 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nikita Glushkov has his answer from Dinamo Makhachkala; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Dinamo Makhachkala training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Smelov 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
Crisis
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Hazem Mastouri takes the afternoon — 8.78
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hazem Mastouri provided it, and the 8.78 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Houssem Mrezigue 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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 targets21 Sep 2026
Dinamo Makhachkala 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Sep 2026
100 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
No hiding place for Joe Lewis
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joe Lewis, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Mohammad Javad Hosseinnejad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ramazan Aliev 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 terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mohammad Javad Hosseinnejad 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.