Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Denis Yakuba 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.
Ivan Yakovlev 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.
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.
Marked 8.32 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Dinamo Stavropol will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Yakuba 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.
Ivan Yakovlev 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Arseny Vasilenko
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Stavropol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Dinamo Stavropol and Sochi 2, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 9.64 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.39 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Dmitry Ternovskiy 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nart have kept their man, and Dinamo Stavropol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gavriil Bykov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luka Zheleznov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yuri Mamonov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Rubin Yalta will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Dinamo Stavropol were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Denis Yakuba and Dinamo Stavropol agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Kratkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Rubin Yalta tried to reorganise, Dinamo Stavropol did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.