Marked for Daniil Marugin
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Makhachkala lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market5 Apr 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Dinamo Makhachkala, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout5 Apr 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
18 days out for Marat Apshatsev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Makhachkala will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Dinamo Makhachkala
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Loan watch5 Apr 2027
5 appearances away from home and 17 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad5 Apr 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 Dinamo Makhachkala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Hazem Mastouri has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Makhachkala 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2027
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Makhachkala lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Marat Apshatsev out for 54 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Makhachkala will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Mar 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Dinamo Makhachkala, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Dinamo Makhachkala close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market1 Mar 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Makhachkala they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Flamengo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Dmitry Skopintsev 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“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; Dinamo Makhachkala are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout1 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Dec 2026
Soslan Kagermazov damages knee ligaments — 105 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
Miro 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 Dinamo Makhachkala can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Daniil Marugin: 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.” Dinamo Makhachkala have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Dmitry Skopintsev 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Veiga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bogdan Toporov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Dinamo Moscow, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$1.7M was the most the club would pay and Baltika 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Dinamo Makhachkala asked and Rubin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match22 Aug 2026
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Dinamo Makhachkala has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to Yenisey this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Daniil Lesovoy 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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 makes an example of David Volk
“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.