From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Rotor's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Rotor has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Rotor
Irakly Manelov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A move Matteo Antignani 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. Matteo Antignani is living that version at Rotor, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Rotor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Troshechkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match26 Sep 2026
3 matches without a goal for Rotor
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Rotor are still strangers to each other
13 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Arseny Spiridonov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Gergő Szécsi
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 42. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Vélez keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad21 Sep 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 Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sergey Makarov 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.
Market21 Sep 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Amoris Galli commits to Rotor for another 3 years.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.29 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Rotor had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 18 in, 6 out at Rotor
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Rotor
Ilhan Fakili 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nikolai Kudryavtsev 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Valentin Fadeev 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matteo Voltolini, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Luca Ferretti gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luca Ferretti has just signed for Rotor, and for once the answer mattered.
Market7 Sep 2026
The paperwork is done: Daniil Martovoy joins from Shinnik in a deal worth $200.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Rotor
Ilhan Fakili 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Rotor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Troshechkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
This league is too small for Ilhan Fakili
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Rotor will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
The afternoon belonged to Said Aliev
A mark of 7.84, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Vélez have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Rotor and Shinnik have settled on $200.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Rotor
Nikita Chagrov 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexandr Khokhlachev. 3‑1 against Torpedo Moscow, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
At 20 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.44 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Rotor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergey Makarov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Besiktas, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad24 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 Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and Rotor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Rotor get the job done against Shinnik
A 2‑0 win over Shinnik, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 8.16 — 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Alexandr Troshechkin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Estudiantes have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Arseny Spiridonov on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Sergey Makarov
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” NK Krsko had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Rotor
Irakly Manelov 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Rotor asked and Boca Juniors 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 targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Almagro: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Nikita Chagrov 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 Chagrov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vladimir Sugrobov, and the manager let it.
Match15 Aug 2026
No goals between Rotor and Volga
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Volga will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
No thanks: Renato Nhaga rejects the move
Rotor had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Galatasaray, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Rotor
Irakly Manelov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: NK Krsko have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alexandr Khubulov. The answer from Rotor has not changed — yet.
Match8 Aug 2026
1‑3 to SKA Khabarovsk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Arseny Aristov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Daniil Semak 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bogdan Zabolotsky is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 44. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market3 Aug 2026
Rotor say no — this time
The offer from Smorgon for Alexandr Khokhlachev 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nikita Chagrov and Rotor agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Rotor
Irakly Manelov 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
A row about effort at Rotor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Simonyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Irakly Manelov. 1‑0 against Chernomorets, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 8.27 — 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.