Marked for Nikita Plotnikov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Oct 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 The request is on a desk at Rotor 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Rotor 2
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Maxim Khramtsov 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 terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikita Plotnikov 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.69 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Pogudin 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gleb Shilnikov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Rotor 2 dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Gianfranco Leiva damages knee ligaments — 86 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 86 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.
Match30 Sep 2026
Rotor march on in the cup
Irtysh are out and Rotor go through, 1‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match3 Oct 2026
A hiding for Rotor
Beaten 1‑4 by Spartak Kostroma, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Rotor
8 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Marvin Dossche decides it from twelve yards
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Rotor
Nikita Chagrov 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
786% of the income goes out in wages at Rotor
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Sep 2026
Every point is an argument now for Rotor 2
Position 14 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match26 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Rotor 2
6 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.
Market28 Sep 2026
“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 2 can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 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 Rotor 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Alexey Pogudin 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad28 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match19 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Rotor 2
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Rotor 2 are no longer polite ones.
Market21 Sep 2026
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Fakel moved on, Vladimir Sugrobov reports back to Rotor 2, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sergey Prokofjev 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 terraces21 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Gleb Shilnikov 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Pogudin 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Rotor 2 told Maxim Khramtsov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Yegor Tarin 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 2 can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Sep 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match5 Sep 2026
3 matches without a goal for Rotor 2
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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Spartak Tambov left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Pogudin 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexey Pogudin, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“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 2 will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
An afternoon Maxim Maltsev will want back
Marked 5.54. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 2 can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Pogudin 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Znamya Truda left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.06, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Daniil Grada, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.11
A mark of 8.11 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad17 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 Rotor 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gleb Shilnikov. 3‑1 against Kvant, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Gleb Shilnikov 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
3 goals inside twenty minutes with Gleb Shilnikov in the middle of it, and Kvant unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danila Ponomarev, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Amirkhanyan 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad10 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 Rotor 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Batyr Umirov 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 ratings10 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 18. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad10 Aug 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“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 2 will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Alexey Pogudin 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
“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 2 can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 4 of the 16 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexey Pogudin and Rotor 2 agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Timofey Falchenko 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ryazan left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Alexey Pogudin
“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.