Marked for Daniel Ruiz
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout10 May 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market10 May 2027
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.
Squad10 May 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Henrique Carmo and CSKA Moscow agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 May 2027
Matheus Reis in a row with a teammate
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.
The dugout10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Henrique Carmo, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 May 2027
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 Matvey Kislyak is on it.
Market10 May 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matvey Kislyak signs something — a contract at CSKA Moscow or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout10 May 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Squad10 May 2027
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at CSKA Moscow that is a harder question to answer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Dec 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 17 matches without defeat is a foundation CSKA Moscow did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Matheus Alves at 21 — 8.31
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matheus Alves did not need any: 8.31, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Ivan Oblyakov 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 terraces28 Dec 2026
At 21 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Reis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match26 Dec 2026
A goal on 93 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Ivan Oblyakov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at CSKA Moscow 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match14 Nov 2026
Akron will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. CSKA Moscow were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Match14 Nov 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now CSKA Moscow have 6 straight wins of it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad16 Nov 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for CSKA Moscow. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Reis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Something was said to Gianluca Scamacca and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
João Victor and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Dodô out for 21 days
The medical room confirms 21 days on the sidelines for Dodô, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match10 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Tamerlan Musaev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to CSKA Moscow.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Matheus Reis 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.
Squad12 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; CSKA Moscow are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.64 on the card, and the CSKA Moscow support went home talking about one name.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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 Gianluca Scamacca is on it.
The dugout12 Oct 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.” Timur Baranov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Market12 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Danila Kozlov takes the afternoon — 8.22
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Danila Kozlov provided it, and the 8.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 8.63 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ivan Oblyakov 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.
Match30 Sep 2026
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about CSKA Moscow and Zvezda in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Market5 Oct 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether CSKA Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Everything agreed with Al-Ahli, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market14 Sep 2026
Moisés puts it in writing
“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 CSKA Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer from Rubin for Kirill Glebov 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Matheus Alves to Lokomotiv Moscow has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to CSKA Moscow with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
CSKA Moscow asked and Rostov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. CSKA Moscow will try again when the window opens; Panathinaikos may not be selling by then.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
CSKA Moscow close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 5 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
52 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout14 Sep 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.