Marked for Markus Bauer
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings6 Oct 2036
A chastening introduction for Charles Simmons — 5.79
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.79 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Market6 Oct 2036
Matthias Hahn has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rubin 2 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad6 Oct 2036
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ilnur Gabdullin and Rubin 2 agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Oct 2036
Stanislav Stefanovich 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.
Boardroom6 Oct 2036
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad6 Oct 2036
Ilnur Gabdullin 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Aug 2036
“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.
Squad11 Aug 2036
“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.
Squad11 Aug 2036
Markus Bauer is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Jul 2036
“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 2 can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Jul 2036
Ufa come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Rubin 2 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad14 Jul 2036
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 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jul 2036
Markus Bauer is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad14 Jul 2036
A move Bistra Georgiev would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Bistra Georgiev is living that version at Rubin 2, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad14 Jul 2036
João Vítor 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.