Marked for Aaron Rowe
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces28 May 2029
Anger at Ural spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match28 May 2029
Every point is an argument now for Ural
Position 16 and 9 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.
Squad28 May 2029
Tempers go at Ural
Fanil Sungatulin 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.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Ural training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Du Queiróz 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.
Squad28 May 2029
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Muteb Al-Mufarrij
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Ural will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout28 May 2029
Artem Mamin back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Ural has worked with Artem Mamin before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The dugout28 May 2029
Musa Masika has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ural 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.
The dugout28 May 2029
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.
The dugout28 May 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ural, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 May 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ural can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ural this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Ural training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reziuan Mirzov 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 May 2029
29 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout21 May 2029
The manager makes an example of Mateo Raschia
“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.
The dugout21 May 2029
Artem Mamin back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Ural has worked with Artem Mamin before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The dugout21 May 2029
Yegor Mosin gets picked when it counts
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 Yegor Mosin is on it.
Market21 May 2029
The Ilja Ishkov story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ilja Ishkov signs something — a contract at Ural or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout21 May 2029
Nikita Morozov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikita Morozov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Apr 2029
Musa Masika hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ural can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ural may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market9 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ural is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Ural
Fanil Sungatulin 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Ural
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reziuan Mirzov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“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; Ural are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Pablo Solari's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
Kazbek Mukailov 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.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
Artem Mamin back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Ural has worked with Artem Mamin before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
In brief
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Squad
Aaron Rowe still has not settled
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Boardroom
The Ural academy earns its keep
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market26 Feb 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Yenisey can pretend not to have heard.
Market26 Feb 2029
Krasnodar come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Yenisey did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match24 Feb 2029
Yenisey make home a hard place to visit
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Market26 Feb 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Yenisey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
“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.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Window shuts: 0 in, 1 out at Yenisey
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Artem Pogosov has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad26 Feb 2029
A falling-out at Yenisey
Dmitry Radikovskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Yenisey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malik Djibril 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
Crisis
Market29 Jan 2029
“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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
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.
Market29 Jan 2029
Only the photograph left for Aaron Rowe
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aaron Rowe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Yenisey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Yenisey have done the hard part with Neftyanik, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad29 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Yenisey
Dmitry Radikovskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Vladis Emmersón 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.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Yenisey asked and Sokol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match27 Jan 2029
1‑2 to Torpedo Moscow, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Jan 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Yenisey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market8 Jan 2029
“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 Yenisey, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match6 Jan 2029
5 matches without a win for Yenisey
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Yenisey are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings8 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match6 Jan 2029
Yenisey make home a hard place to visit
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Yenisey
Dmitry Radikovskiy 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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Andrey Mendel
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Yenisey will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
Wages swallow 120% of the Yenisey income
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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Jan 2029
22 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market1 Jan 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Yenisey can pretend not to have heard.
Market1 Jan 2029
Aaron Rowe has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Yenisey they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
A defender's goal wins it for Yenisey — 7.55
1 for Andrea Chukanov, marked 7.55, 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
A move Soul Kader would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Soul Kader is living that version at Yenisey, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match30 Dec 2028
4 matches without a win for Yenisey
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Yenisey are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Yenisey
Dmitry Radikovskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Yenisey
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Malik Djibril was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match30 Dec 2028
Chelyabinsk left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Dec 2028
11 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match2 Dec 2028
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market4 Dec 2028
Aaron Rowe has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Yenisey they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.99, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad4 Dec 2028
A falling-out at Yenisey
Dmitry Radikovskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match2 Dec 2028
The run at home goes on for Yenisey
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Vladis Emmersón 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.
Loan watch4 Dec 2028
“I did not go to Akhmat Grozny to sit and watch. I want to come back to Yenisey and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 15 matches say the rest.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
Wages swallow 143% of the Yenisey income
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout6 Nov 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ural may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match4 Nov 2028
The wait goes on for Ural
4 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Yury Maleev is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad6 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ural this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Ural training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Ishkov 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.
Match4 Nov 2028
Kazbek Mukailov scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Orenburg, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
Yenisey will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Aaron Rowe has pre-agreed a move to Ural, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Ítalo
“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.
Match6 Nov 2028
Ural at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 16, 4 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Nov 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market6 Nov 2028
Aaron Rowe has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Yenisey they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
A defender's goal wins it for Yenisey — 7.55
1 for Andrea Chukanov, marked 7.55, 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.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Aaron Rowe has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
A hand in 2 of them from Malik Djibril — 7.91
Marked 7.91. 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Yenisey
Dmitry Radikovskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match4 Nov 2028
Still nobody has beaten Yenisey
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Yenisey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladis Emmersón 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.
Match4 Nov 2028
SKA Khabarovsk made Yenisey work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Yenisey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words exchanged at Yenisey
Dmitry Radikovskiy 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Malik Djibril 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 ratings18 Sep 2028
Aaron Rowe was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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.
Match16 Sep 2028
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Daniil Golikov's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Timofey Aksyonov after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
Malik Djibril 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Window shuts: 27 in, 27 out at Yenisey
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 27 arrived, 27 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Yenisey have done the hard part with Rubin, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Daniil Golikov 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Yenisey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladis Emmersón 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 targets11 Sep 2028
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.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
119% of the income goes out in wages at Yenisey
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 dugout11 Sep 2028
“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.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
A promise honoured at Yenisey
Something was said to Daniil Golikov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Market11 Sep 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Yenisey, another week without a signature from Aaron Rowe.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 May 2028
“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.
Market29 May 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexandr Nadolskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Yenisey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Yenisey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2028
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad29 May 2028
A row about effort at Yenisey
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladis Emmersón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 May 2028
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 dugout29 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrea Chukanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout29 May 2028
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Andrey Mendel has written the date down.
Market29 May 2028
Simone Foti runs his contract down
6 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Yenisey money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Apr 2028
Only the photograph left for Amir Batyrev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amir Batyrev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Yenisey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Yenisey
Yaroslav Mikhailov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Yenisey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladis Emmersón 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 dugout10 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Nadolskiy, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
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 Yaroslav Mikhailov is on it.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Andrea Chukanov 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.
Market10 Apr 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andrea Chukanov signs something — a contract at Yenisey or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Rodion Pechura wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Yenisey have no good answer.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
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.