Marked for Ivan Oblyakov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at CSKA Moscow until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and CSKA Moscow know it.
Market1 Mar 2027
Dara O'Shea 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 CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad1 Mar 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 CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market1 Mar 2027
The name of Karim Onisiwo has come up in conversations CSKA Moscow were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Imran Firov commits to CSKA Moscow for another 3 years.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
“I did not go to NK Celje to sit and watch. I want to come back to CSKA Moscow and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Karim Onisiwo, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Danil Krugovoy
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CSKA Moscow lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match16 Jan 2027
A 2-goal lead gone for CSKA Moscow
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Spartak Moscow kept coming because nothing stopped them, and CSKA Moscow will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Market18 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Kirill Glebov, 21, steals the show — 8.16
Marked 8.16 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market18 Jan 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Andreas Hanche-Olsen wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Market18 Jan 2027
The name of Henrique Carmo has come up in conversations CSKA Moscow were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Andreas Hanche-Olsen 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
He is 21, he is averaging 7.10, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Moisés 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Dec 2026
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSKA Moscow lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match26 Dec 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A brace, and Luciano Gondou takes the afternoon — 9.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luciano Gondou provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match28 Dec 2026
46 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” CSKA Moscow may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Ivan Oblyakov goes up and wins it — 7.98
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.98 for the rest of it.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.35 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Andreas Hanche-Olsen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Sep 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Baltika, and it could have been more.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.15 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
CSKA Moscow asked and Dinamo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Henrique Carmo, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.21
A mark of 8.21 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A defender's goal wins it for CSKA Moscow — 7.99
1 for Ivan Oblyakov, marked 7.99, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at CSKA Moscow until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer from BATE for Matvey Lukin 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.
Squad14 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 CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. CSKA Moscow have paid $14.2M for Andreas Hanche-Olsen, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.42, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Minsk had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to Akhmat Grozny 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.
Transfer targets24 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Matheus Alves, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.09
A mark of 8.09 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Novi Pazar for Milan Gajić 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad24 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 CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.