Marked for Alexey Kuznetsov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The deal that would have taken Nikita Kalugin to Sochi has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Leningradets with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 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 Leningradets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Yemeljanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 19 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 7.98. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Nil Lisitsin could afford to be generous.
Market17 Aug 2026
Leningradets have made Nikita Kalugin available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Leningradets people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.73, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Alexey Kuznetsov 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 ratings10 Aug 2026
Ilja Stefanovich was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.84. 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Savely Yevdokimov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Maksim Savinov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Stanislav Nazarov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout10 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Aug 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 Leningradets can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexey Kuznetsov and Leningradets agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Alexey Kuznetsov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Leningradets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Yemeljanov 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Maxim Ortyashov again, and this time the name on the line is Kvant. Leningradets are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.