Jonathan Dellarossa 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronaldo 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 words a physio says slowly. 20 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rostov 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Eyad El Askalany is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Jonathan Dellarossa 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronaldo 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.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rostov lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Jonathan Dellarossa 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.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rostov lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Rostov know 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 Rostov 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 4.71. 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 96 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rostov can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rostov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Mohammad Mohebi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Rostov and Spartak Moscow.
“I watch every Rostov game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lokomotiv Moscow runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rostov lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Jonathan Dellarossa 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronaldo 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 114 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rostov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Rostov have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Rostov would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The words a physio says slowly. 123 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.
1 for Daniil Shantaliy, marked 7.80, 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.
Jonathan Dellarossa 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 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A 1‑0 win over Dinamo Makhachkala, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Rustam Yatimov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Rostov have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ronaldo provided it, and the 8.21 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 Rostov, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dmitry Chistyakov 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 name of Stepan Melnikov has come up in conversations Rostov were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
The offer from Krasnodar for Rustam Yatimov 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.
Add another name to the list: Lokomotiv Moscow have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Konstantin Kuchaev. The answer from Rostov has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rostov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohammad Mohebi signs something — a contract at Rostov or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Rostov may not be able to give Ronaldo what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ronaldo wants continental football; whether Rostov can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Dmitry Chistyakov 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.