Marked for Stephen Adayilo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
Alexey Naidenov damages knee ligaments — 92 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 92 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“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.
Market8 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uralets-TS is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Stephen Adayilo 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 Mar 2027
$67.0K was the most the club would pay and Fakel were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“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.
Market8 Mar 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Uralets-TS, another week without a signature from Alexey Naidenov.
Loan watch8 Mar 2027
“I watch every Uralets-TS game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Irkutsk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market8 Mar 2027
Still no offer on the table, and Akhjad Garisultanov’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
99 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Uralets-TS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market1 Mar 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Uralets-TS people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“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.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Window shuts: 0 in, 0 out at Uralets-TS
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Chernomorets is saying, and nobody at Uralets-TS is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
Uralets-TS have gone to Fakel with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Stephen Adayilo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
Uralets-TS asked and Volgar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Uralets-TS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akhjad Garisultanov 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
Upbeat
Squad25 Jan 2027
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Uralets-TS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Match23 Jan 2027
Still nobody has beaten Uralets-TS
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match23 Jan 2027
The run at home goes on for Uralets-TS
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Market25 Jan 2027
Only the photograph left for Maxim Tarasov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxim Tarasov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uralets-TS the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uralets-TS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Uralets-TS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Pikulik 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.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Wages swallow 156% of the Uralets-TS income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Jan 2027
59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Uralets-TS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match18 Jan 2027
39 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Stephen Adayilo 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Uralets-TS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akhjad Garisultanov 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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexey Naidenov, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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 dugout18 Jan 2027
Nawaf Al-Otaibi asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Alexey Chaplygin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Uralets-TS will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jan 2027
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Uralets-TS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match9 Jan 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Uralets-TS did not have in the autumn.
Match9 Jan 2027
The run at home goes on for Uralets-TS
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Mikhail Pilipenko 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Uralets-TS
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Akhjad Garisultanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Maxim Gorin
“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.
Market11 Jan 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
“I watch every Uralets-TS game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Irkutsk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Dec 2026
80 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Uralets-TS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Nawaf Al-Otaibi out for 27 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Uralets-TS will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market28 Dec 2026
Maxim Tarasov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uralets-TS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Still nobody has beaten Uralets-TS
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match26 Dec 2026
A 3‑1 win over Krylya Sovetov 2, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Uralets-TS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akhjad Garisultanov 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 177% of everything Uralets-TS earn
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 terraces28 Dec 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Uralets-TS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Dec 2026
34 days out for Nawaf Al-Otaibi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Uralets-TS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match21 Dec 2026
32 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match19 Dec 2026
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Akhjad Garisultanov 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Maxim Moskovets
“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.
Match19 Dec 2026
A 1‑1 draw with KDV Tomsk leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Yakov Zheleznov chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Dec 2026
Alexandr Seraskhov damages knee ligaments — 95 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 95 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match12 Dec 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Vladislav Yanchenko 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.
The dugout14 Dec 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Vladislav Yanchenko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑0, already talking about the next one.
Market14 Dec 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Uralets-TS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Nawaf Al-Otaibi out for 49 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Uralets-TS will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Stephen Adayilo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Akhjad Garisultanov 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nikita Sevostjanov. 2‑1 against Volna, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Dominik Pikulik 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Uralets-TS make home a hard place to visit
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Nawaf Al-Otaibi
“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 ratings7 Dec 2026
Stephen Adayilo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Uralets-TS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Nov 2026
56 days out for Nawaf Al-Otaibi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Uralets-TS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Uralets-TS may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uralets-TS is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Uralets-TS are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad30 Nov 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 Uralets-TS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 147% of the Uralets-TS income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexey Naidenov, and the manager let it.
Loan watch30 Nov 2026
“I watch every Uralets-TS game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Irkutsk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Uralets-TS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Nawaf Al-Otaibi out for 63 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Uralets-TS will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match21 Nov 2026
Nosta will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Uralets-TS were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Match18 Nov 2026
The small margins put Uralets-TS out
Out, 0‑4 to Rostov, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
A cup embarrassment at Rostov follows Uralets-TS home
0-4. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Mikhail Pilipenko 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.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
He is 23 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Gorin, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
92 days out for Nawaf Al-Otaibi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Uralets-TS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match26 Oct 2026
Uralets-TS are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 19 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match24 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Uralets-TS do not lose
9 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad26 Oct 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 Uralets-TS know it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Akhjad Garisultanov 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.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“I watch every Uralets-TS game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Irkutsk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
A promise honoured at Uralets-TS
Something was said to Alexey Chaplygin and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Market26 Oct 2026
No place for Airat Musin in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Airat Musin has his answer from Uralets-TS; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
99 days out for Nawaf Al-Otaibi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Uralets-TS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market19 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uralets-TS can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Nawaf Al-Otaibi: 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.” Uralets-TS have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match17 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Uralets-TS do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Stephen Adayilo 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Uralets-TS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akhjad Garisultanov 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.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mikhail Pilipenko 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Three points for Uralets-TS, 1‑0 the final word against Akron 2 in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
106 days out for Nawaf Al-Otaibi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Uralets-TS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Uralets-TS may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aikhan Bakhysh-Zade is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Stephen Adayilo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Uralets-TS told Nikita Sevostjanov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uralets-TS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market12 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Moskovets signs something — a contract at Uralets-TS or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market12 Oct 2026
Uralets-TS have made Airat Musin available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Nawaf Al-Otaibi out for 120 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Uralets-TS will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match28 Sep 2026
Uralets-TS are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 15 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Mikhail Pilipenko 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Uralets-TS do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Market28 Sep 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Maxim Moskovets has his answer from Uralets-TS; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout28 Sep 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.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Irkutsk to sit and watch. I want to come back to Uralets-TS and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Yakov Zheleznov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Uralets-TS dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 127 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market21 Sep 2026
The offer from Strogino for Maxim Tarasov 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Three points for Uralets-TS, 1‑0 the final word against Rubin 2 in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Uralets-TS ran out of time with Sokol. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Maxim Moskovets
“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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Uralets-TS are still strangers to each other
18 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.71, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Yakov Zheleznov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Uralets-TS people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market7 Sep 2026
Maxim Tarasov 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 Uralets-TS can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets7 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Rayat Sharafutdinov has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Uralets-TS, another week without a signature from Alexandr Seraskhov.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Maxim Moskovets
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Maxim Moskovets has come out of that comparison in the side, and Uralets-TS have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Market7 Sep 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Maxim Moskovets may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Maxim Gorin moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Uralets-TS than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Kirill Matsak 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 Kirill Matsak is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Uralets-TS have done the hard part with Tyumen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Stephen Adayilo 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 targets31 Aug 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.
The dugout31 Aug 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 7.51 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Uralets-TS had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Alexey Chaplygin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Uralets-TS will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. KDV Tomsk will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2026
Cherepovets are out and Uralets-TS go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stephen Adayilo and Uralets-TS agree another 3 years.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Stephen Adayilo 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 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.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Alexey Chaplygin 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kirill Matsak. 1‑0 against Orenburg 2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Maxim Gorin 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.