Marked for Artem Maximenko
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match21 Nov 2026
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Nikita Medvedev 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Artem Maximenko
“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.
Match21 Nov 2026
CSKA Moscow left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Nizhniy Novgorod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dan Potts 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
14 appearances at Chelyabinsk and the goals keep coming. Nizhniy Novgorod are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
Sven Karič 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 Nizhniy Novgorod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Artem Maximenko
“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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Rostov left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edgardo Fariña was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Oct 2026
16 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Vladlen Kryukov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Dan Potts dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Spartak Moscow in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market21 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sven Karič and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 Sep 2026
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Dan Potts 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 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rodion Dmitriev, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Nikita Medvedev's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vladlen Kryukov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
Sven Karič 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 Nizhniy Novgorod can pretend not to have heard.
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
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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rostov have kept their man, and Nizhniy Novgorod go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market7 Sep 2026
Alexey Miranchuk wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Nizhniy Novgorod hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Sven Karič 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 targets7 Sep 2026
$38.0K was the most the club would pay and Rubin 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Nizhniy Novgorod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dan Potts 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Nizhniy Novgorod will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 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 Rodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Sep 2026
Nizhniy Novgorod paid $1.3M and Rodina took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kerfala Cissoko commits to Rodina for another 4 years.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Rodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Arce 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Rodina
Artem Sokol and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Sebastián Arce
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Soltmurad Bakaev has his answer from Rodina; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Rodina are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Artem Meschaninov's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 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 Rodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Iker Pozo delivers — 7.92
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Iker Pozo scored, was marked 7.92, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market31 Aug 2026
Rodina say no — this time
The offer from Adana Demirspor for Artem Maximenko 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Rodina
Mikhail Maltsev 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Mitja Križan 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
A goal on 86 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Arsenal Tula leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
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 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Leo Goglichidze
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.