26 goals and a season average of 7.60 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A brace, and Belajdi Pusi takes the afternoon — 9.14
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Belajdi Pusi provided it, and the 9.14 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 The request is on a desk at Fakel, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fakel has been clear about where Roman Akbashev stands, which is more than many ever get.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ravil Netfullin 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Maxim Karpov
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Dugopolje for Merabi Uridia 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Belajdi Pusi. 2‑1 against Spartak Kostroma, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fakel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Aris had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
1‑4 to Chelyabinsk, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darko Todorović 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fakel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Navbahor for Belajdi Pusi 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.
Vyacheslav Yakimov 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The first defeat in 11 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Rodina; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Rodina held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Fakel answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fakel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ravil Netfullin 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 95th minute. Torpedo Moscow will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Torpedo Moscow made Fakel work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Belajdi Pusi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.43. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilnur Alshin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Belajdi Pusi will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Fakel escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.49 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Merabi Uridia 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Fakel will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Valery Mamonov 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. Miroslav Ogarev 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It finished 2‑1, and it was Belajdi Pusi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Fakel.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ilnur Alshin 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fakel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
116 minutes played. Alexandr Koksharov found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and KAMAZ went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Two goals and a mark of 9.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
A mark of 8.06 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Merabi Uridia 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.
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Belajdi Pusi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.71. 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.
Successful dribbles: 39. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Belajdi Pusi takes the afternoon — 9.14
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Belajdi Pusi provided it, and the 9.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Darko Todorović 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. German Gerasimov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Fakel. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ravil Netfullin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Abdulpasha Djabrailov 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Successful dribbles: 39. 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Abdula Bagamaev scored, was marked 7.44, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Merabi Uridia 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilnur Alshin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Vyacheslav Yakimov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ravil Netfullin 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alexey Ignatov after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fakel has been clear about where Yury Zhuravlev stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Fakel told Ravil Netfullin something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.66 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ravil Netfullin 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 an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.42 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Butta Magomedov scored, was marked 7.81, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Nuri Abdokov 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.
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.
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Merabi Uridia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ravil Netfullin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
5 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Neftekhimik next, and one man in the Fakel dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Two goals and a mark of 9.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ravil Netfullin 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.
“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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Alexey Ignatov kept it short after the 3‑2 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Fakel has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Fakel until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Baltika have kept their man, and Fakel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yakov Zubkov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilnur Alshin 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.
Abdulpasha Djabrailov 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.
Fakel had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Baltika, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The fee is $280.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Dinamo Makhachkala drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ravil Netfullin 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.
Dinamo Makhachkala have accepted the money. What Fakel do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
5 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.
SKA Khabarovsk paid $400.0K and Fakel took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Vyacheslav Yakimov 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 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lokomotiv Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$1.5M was the most the club would pay and Akron were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
$490.0K on the table at CSKA Moscow. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Fakel asked and Rosario Central said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.54 — 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.34, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ilnur Alshin 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.
$2.8M was the most the club would pay and Baltika were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Fakel had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Boca Juniors, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Fakel 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilnur Alshin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 87 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Fakel are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Fakel asked and Baltika said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everything agreed with Boca Juniors, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Merabi Uridia 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Savely Zubov 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Radomir Mukhin has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A mark of 8.23 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Darko Todorović 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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilnur Alshin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 89 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.