The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lokomotiv Moscow have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 The request is on a desk at Lokomotiv Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torpedo Moscow have kept their man, and Lokomotiv Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nikolay Komlichenko and Lokomotiv Moscow agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. César Montes 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.
Lokomotiv Moscow ran out of time with Rotor. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“I did not go to Hajduk Split to sit and watch. I want to come back to Lokomotiv Moscow and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 34 matches say the rest.
3‑6 to Akhmat, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Krylya Sovetov are out and Lokomotiv Moscow go through, 4‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Position 4 on 54 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abu-Said Eldarushev provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The chase for Abu-Said Eldarushev ended with $2.2M changing hands and Rotor out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Lucas Vera has left for Krasnodar in a $2.8M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Lokomotiv Moscow close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 7 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rotor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Maxim Khramtsov reports back to Rotor with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
He is going to Lokomotiv Moscow, the club has $2.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Kamil Siudak has, at Rotor, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Lokomotiv Moscow pay $2.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Neman waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiv Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Rotor 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Neftekhimik have kept their man, and Lokomotiv Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Lokomotiv Moscow have gone to Fakel with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vadim Rakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Lokomotiv Moscow know it.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chelyabinsk waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rotor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The phone has started ringing about Abu-Said Eldarushev again, and this time the name on the line is Lokomotiv Moscow. Rotor are listening politely and promising nothing.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rotor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Milan Majstorović 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 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rotor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Simonyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Pavel Gorelov.
“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.
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 Milan Majstorović is on it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 7.78 for the rest of it.
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 7.69 for the rest of it.
Milan Majstorović 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 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.
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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 7.37. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.84, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.05, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Mohamed Azzi is on it.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Rotor had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
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 7.73 for the rest of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rotor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 17 combined actions and a mark of 6.88, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Milan Majstorović 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 7.42, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Simonyan 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.
8.00. 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Milan Majstorović 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 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Quvonchbek Abrayev 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.
Marked 8.15 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rotor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. David Davidyan scored, was marked 7.70, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Artem Simonyan 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.
8.46. 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
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.” Bogdan Gagarin, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at Rotor 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Simonyan 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.
8.25. 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Rotor is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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.” Bogdan Gagarin, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abu-Said Eldarushev provided it, and the 9.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Milan Majstorović 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.
6 goals in one match, Abu-Said Eldarushev on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Rotor and Ufa.
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.
“I watch every Rotor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rostov runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Bogdan Gagarin was not hiding it after 3‑3, and nobody in the Rotor dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutPavel Gorelov knocks on the manager's door
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Nizhniy Novgorod had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Rotor did not stop to explain themselves.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rotor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 7.87 for the rest of it.
Pavel Gorelov 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: David Davidyan. 3‑1 against Dinamo Moscow 2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
SquadArtem Simonyan falls out with a teammate over standards
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Simonyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rotor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Rotor would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bogdan Gagarin after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiv Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lokomotiv Moscow have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pedro did not need any: 8.14, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 25 signed and 31 gone
That is the business done at Lokomotiv 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.
Lokomotiv Moscow had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at SKA Khabarovsk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Lokomotiv Moscow asked and Rotor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
0‑3 to Nizhniy Novgorod, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The offer from Lokomotiv Moscow for Abu-Said Eldarushev 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rotor can pretend not to have heard.
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Rotor are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Rotor close the window on a squad of their own making
19 in and 14 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.
The deal that would have taken Alexandr Khubulov to Dinamo Makhachkala has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Rotor with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Rotor can tell you which week it ends in.
125 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kuban waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rotor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor 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.
Dinamo Moscow have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
In brief
Squad6 new faces, and Rotor are still learning each other
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abu-Said Eldarushev provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Rotor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sergey Makarov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rotor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Pavel Gorelov 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 phone has started ringing about Alexandr Khubulov again, and this time the name on the line is Sibir. Rotor are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
SquadArtem Simonyan falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rotor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rotor can pretend not to have heard.
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
9.45. 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 Artem Simonyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Rotor had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Rubin, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$1.0M was the most the club would pay and Lokomotiv Moscow 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.
The deal with CSKA Moscow is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Simonyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rotor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer went to Lokomotiv Moscow 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.
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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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 Imran Aznaurov is on it.
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Aznaurov 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.
In brief
The dugoutIvan Lomaev knocks on the manager’s door
The words a physio says slowly. 102 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Georgy Melkadze 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artem Simonyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Georgy Melkadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Rotor will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Abu-Said Eldarushev 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Georgy Melkadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.37. 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.
Everybody at Rotor saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Artem Simonyan will call it something else in private.
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Rotor will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Ivan Lomaev
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.
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.
Alexandr Kleschenko 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
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 Bogdan Gagarin left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rotor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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 level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Rotor know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Ivan Lomaev
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutNikita Chagrov asks for a word with the manager
“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 Rotor, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rotor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Up for the corner, and Pavel Gorelov delivers — 7.97
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Pavel Gorelov scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Rotor close the window on a squad of their own making
5 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.
“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; Rotor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Rotor know now that the thought has arrived.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Rotor and Neftekhimik, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Georgy Melkadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Abu-Said Eldarushev 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.
Rotor asked and Volgar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Daniil Grada will call it something else in private.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Bogdan Gagarin on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Simonyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Simonyan 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Rotor will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“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.
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 7.97 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Simonyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody at Rotor saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
It needed Alexandr Troshechkin to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Shinnik, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Atsamaz Revazov, and the manager let it.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Bogdan Gagarin was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Rotor dressing room was either.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Said Aliev 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mikhail Umnikov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Rotor have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Bogdan Gagarin after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Nikolay Poyarkov 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Rotor is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Abu-Said Eldarushev decided nobody was going anywhere. Chaika had no time left to answer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Simonyan 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Danilkin 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Georgy Yudintsev 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.
Something was said to Nikola Knežević 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 Artem Simonyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nikolay Poyarkov 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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nikola Knežević. 2‑1 against Spartak Kostroma, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikola Knežević 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Imran Aznaurov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Jefferson Araújo 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.
Alexandr Troshechkin 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 Artem Simonyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abu-Said Eldarushev. 1‑0 against Yenisey, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Bogdan Gagarin on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rotor can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Simonyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Moscow have kept their man, and Rotor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Rotor know which stage they are at.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Rotor 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rotor, and both men came out saying it was fine.