Marked for Dmitriy Anisimov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Aug 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alexandr Smirnov
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin Yalta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces16 Aug 2032
The mood at Rubin Yalta has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Player ratings16 Aug 2032
A brace, and Abdulaziz Jurmush takes the afternoon — 8.54
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abdulaziz Jurmush provided it, and the 8.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market16 Aug 2032
Only the photograph left for Kirill Kon'
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kirill Kon' will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rubin Yalta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match14 Aug 2032
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.
Market16 Aug 2032
“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 The request is on a desk at Rubin Yalta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2032
Rubin Yalta asked and Chaika said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Nikita Ivlev 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 dugout16 Aug 2032
Hugo Delaye 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Jul 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alexandr Smirnov
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin Yalta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match24 Jul 2032
0‑3 against Torpedo Miass, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad26 Jul 2032
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.
Player ratings26 Jul 2032
A chastening introduction for Dmitriy Anisimov — 5.77
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.77 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Kirill Kon' 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.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Words at Rubin Yalta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Kulikov 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2032
224% of the income goes out in wages at Rubin Yalta
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Boardroom26 Jul 2032
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The dugout26 Jul 2032
The manager makes an example of Nikita Ivlev
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Jul 2032
104 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rubin Yalta lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces19 Jul 2032
Anger at Rubin Yalta spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market19 Jul 2032
Kirill Kon' has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rubin Yalta they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout19 Jul 2032
“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.
Market19 Jul 2032
“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.
Squad19 Jul 2032
Artem Kulikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom19 Jul 2032
6 academy graduates step up at Rubin Yalta
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2032
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.
Market19 Jul 2032
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yuri Chernyshov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.