Marked for Batxi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Krasnodar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Krasnodar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batxi 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Nikita Krivtsov
“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
Nobody on the pitch touched Batxi
7.11, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Krasnodar had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pyotr Nikolayev was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Krasnodar dressing room was either.
Match22 Aug 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Orenburg came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market24 Aug 2026
Diego Costa linked with a move away
The name of Diego Costa keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Krasnodar say nothing, which says plenty.
Market24 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
In brief
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Player ratings
Christian beats them one at a time
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The dugout
The plan did not have a place for Jubal
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Squad
Tormena says his piece
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Akron, and it could have been more.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.55, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Znamya Truda had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Krasnodar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Batxi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Krasnodar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rostov have kept their man, and Krasnodar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stanislav Agkatsev, and the manager let it.
Match15 Aug 2026
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Juan Manuel Boselli in the middle of it, and Akron unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
306 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Market3 Aug 2026
Krasnodar may not be able to give Tormena what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tormena wants continental football; whether Krasnodar can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jhon Córdoba and Krasnodar agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Krasnodar
Diego Costa 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Batxi 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.
The dugout3 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Diego Costa asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.