Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denil Maldonado 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rubin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darko Brašanac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Darko Brašanac has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Eduard Belikov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Ruslan Bezrukov'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.
Vyacheslav Karavaev 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 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.
A mark of 7.50, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Eduard Belikov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Rubin dressing room was either.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Akron defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Nobody at Rubin 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.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darko Brašanac 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jacques Siwe. 1‑0 against Nizhniy Novgorod, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
7.82, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Rubin had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout7 Dec 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.” Eduard Belikov kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Rubin 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rubin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Rubin, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 goals in one match, Jacques Siwe on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Rubin and Krylya Sovetov.
A 4‑2 win over Krylya Sovetov, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8.95. 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 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Nazmi Gripshi at his very best
Nazmi Gripshi 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Rubin can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Something was said to Veldin Hodža and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denil Maldonado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 8, 18 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Eduard Belikov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Yegor Teslenko 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.
7 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 dugout12 Oct 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 0‑1 Eduard Belikov left the room before anybody could ask which.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alexey Gritsaenko has his answer from Rubin; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ilja Samoshnikov is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sochi in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Rubin and Luki-Energiya, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniil Motorin 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Baltika had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Rubin did not stop to explain themselves.
The offer from BATE for Veldin Hodža 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.
Nazmi Gripshi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darko Brašanac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin can pretend not to have heard.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ilja Rozhkov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Rubin have 4 straight wins of it.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Rubin close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 4 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darko Brašanac 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin can pretend not to have heard.
Rostov paid $230.0K and Rubin took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Three points for Rubin, 2‑1 the final word against Akron in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Jacques Siwe was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.49. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ruslan Bezrukov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Eduard Belikov, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Rubin will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Moscow have kept their man, and Rubin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dardan Shabanhaxhaj. 1‑0 against Nizhniy Novgorod, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.