Marked for Ivan Lomaev
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Laurent Seji had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market7 Sep 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market7 Sep 2026
Ivan Khomukha is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ufa has been clear about where Ivan Khomukha stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
No hiding place for Léo
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Léo, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Ufa have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Alexandr Belenov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Alexandr Belenov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Ufa have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Alexandr Belenov has moved up it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.88, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ufa make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Ufa have 4 straight wins of it.
Market31 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ufa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market31 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Ufa will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dilan Ortíz. 2‑1 against Volga, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Ivan Khomukha
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Ufa
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Oleg Rusakov kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and SKA Khabarovsk spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Filip Mrzljak yet — 8.20
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market24 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 Ufa can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Partizan is saying, and nobody at Ufa is enjoying the guessing.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ufa make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Ufa have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Laurent Seji and Ufa agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Ufa
Ilja Agapov 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 terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Timofey Shipunov 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Georgy Gongadze takes the afternoon — 9.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Georgy Gongadze provided it, and the 9.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market17 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ufa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Ufa
Ivan Lomaev 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Georgy Gongadze. 3‑1 against Chernomorets, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Transfer targets17 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 8.44 — 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Ufa are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market17 Aug 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
Upbeat
Squad10 Aug 2026
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match8 Aug 2026
No mercy from Ufa
KAMAZ will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Ufa were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market10 Aug 2026
Krasnodar come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ufa did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Besiktas is saying, and nobody at Ufa is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ivan Lomaev in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ufa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Dilan Ortíz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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 terraces10 Aug 2026
He is 20 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alexandr Yermolov 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
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Evgeniy Fomin 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ivan Lomaev and Ufa agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 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; Ufa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Ufa
Ivan Lomaev 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ufa, another week without a signature from Filip Mrzljak.
Market3 Aug 2026
Nobody at Ufa has picked up the phone to Dilan Ortíz
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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Taylan Bulut is in the works
Ufa have made the call to Besiktas. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ufa are still strangers to each other
6 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 ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Half-satisfied: Oleg Rusakov on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.