Marked for Alexandr Scherbakov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.97 at 18, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad28 Sep 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 Ural 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ural 2 are still strangers to each other
13 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Danil Chekhov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Ural 2 have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Market28 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vitaly Bondarev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Sep 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Luki-Energiya had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Ural 2's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ural 2 has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Danil Chekhov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Market14 Sep 2026
Ural 2 have made Vladimir Pavlov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad14 Sep 2026
At 18 he is in the side on merit and somebody else is watching. Places at Ural 2 are won quietly and lost loudly, and this one was won.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ural 2 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Ural 2 have made Alexandr Scherbakov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Spartak Tambov waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ural 2 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Ural 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Ural 2's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ural 2 has to find a result from somewhere.
Match22 Aug 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Ural 2
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Danil Chekhov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Yury Maleev
“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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
No place in the plan for Yury Maleev
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
6 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
33 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings17 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.
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 Ural 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Danil Chekhov after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Market17 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ivan Kuznetsov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Dmitriy Prischepa keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ural 2 say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Aug 2026
Ural 2 say no — this time
The offer from Kuban for Vitaly Bondarev 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.
Squad10 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 Ural 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Uralets-TS left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Vladimir Pavlov
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ural 2, another week without a signature from Ilja Khatuntsev.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Market10 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ivan Kuznetsov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Ural 2.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The plan did not have a place for Yury Maleev
Nobody at Ural 2 is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Aug 2026
A hiding for Ural 2
Beaten 0‑6 by KDV Tomsk, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexandr Scherbakov and Ural 2 agree another 4 years.
Match1 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Ural 2 and KDV Tomsk, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Ural 2
Daniil Yeremin 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Ural 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Khatuntsev 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 name of Vitaly Bondarev has come up in conversations Ural 2 were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Artem Kulikov
“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.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Ural 2 dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market3 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.
In brief
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Ural 2
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The manager has not finished forgetting Vladimir Pavlov's mistake