The Rodina M Courier
Squad8 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ruslan Kukushbaev
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rodina M lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market8 Feb 2027
Arkhip Kazantsev 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 Rodina M can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
$380.0K settles it between the clubs for Astemir Gordyushenko
Rodina have accepted the money. What Rodina M do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Leonid Bocharov says Rodina M went back on their word
“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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Arkhip Kazantsev was unplayable
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Rodina M
Yegor Vedernikov 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.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Door shut on Rashid Yevloev
Rodina M asked and Dinamo Stavropol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market8 Feb 2027
Evgeny Kostin steps up from the Rodina M academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Evgeny Kostin has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market8 Feb 2027
One of our own: Arseniy Ovchinnikov joins the Rodina M first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Arseniy Ovchinnikov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
- Squad Words at Rodina M training over how hard people work
- The dugout The manager makes an example of Alexandr Yevstratov
- Squad Rodion Ogarev signs on for more