The words a physio says slowly. 35 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 The request is on a desk at Rotor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxim Khramtsov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rotor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Milan Majstorović 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.
200 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denis Faizullin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rotor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Up for the corner, and Pavel Gorelov delivers — 7.96
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Pavel Gorelov scored, was marked 7.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Arseny Dmitriev did not need any: 9.24, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.32 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
He is 21 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 57 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rotor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Milan Majstorović 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 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.
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 Alexandr Khubulov is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Volga in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
65 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Bogdan Gagarin after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrey Khityaev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sergey Makarov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rotor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
7.86, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexandr Troshechkin. 2‑1 against Chelyabinsk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Mohamed Azzi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bogdan Gagarin after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
0‑3 to Nizhniy Novgorod, 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.
The offer from Lokomotiv Moscow for Abu-Said Eldarushev 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rotor can pretend not to have heard.
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Rotor are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Rotor close the window on a squad of their own making
19 in and 14 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The deal that would have taken Alexandr Khubulov to Dinamo Makhachkala has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Rotor with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Rotor can tell you which week it ends in.
94 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Mohamed Azzi 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 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutPavel Gorelov asks for a word with the manager
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rotor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rotor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sergey Makarov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rotor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The phone has started ringing about Pavel Gorelov again, and this time the name on the line is Tyumen. Rotor are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Simonyan 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Rotor told Artem Simonyan something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
118 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rotor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Everything agreed with Dinamo Moscow, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
8 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.
125 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kuban waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rotor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
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.
Dinamo Moscow 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.
In brief
Squad6 new faces, and Rotor are still learning each other
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abu-Said Eldarushev provided it, and the 8.93 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 Rotor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sergey Makarov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rotor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
3 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.
Pavel Gorelov 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 phone has started ringing about Alexandr Khubulov again, and this time the name on the line is Sibir. Rotor are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
SquadArtem Simonyan falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rotor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rotor can pretend not to have heard.
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
9.45. 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 Artem Simonyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rotor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Mohamed Azzi 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Simonyan 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cukaricki have kept their man, and Rotor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Timofey Tikhomirov 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 words a physio says slowly. 49 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Yegor Danilkin had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Mohamed Azzi 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 name of Maxim Khramtsov has come up in conversations Rotor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Simonyan 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo St Petersburg have kept their man, and Rotor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squads form friendships and that is healthy; this is not that. 5 separate groups, 4 players belonging to none of them, and a set of tables at lunch that have stopped rearranging themselves. It very rarely fixes itself.
The words a physio says slowly. 56 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Baltika is saying, and nobody at Rotor is enjoying the guessing.
The offer went to Lokomotiv Moscow this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The phone has started ringing about Alexandr Khubulov again, and this time the name on the line is Sibir. Rotor are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Rotor had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Rubin, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$1.0M was the most the club would pay and Lokomotiv Moscow 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.
The deal with CSKA Moscow is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 72 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rotor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer went to Lokomotiv Moscow this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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 Imran Aznaurov is on it.
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rotor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Rotor, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexandr Korotkov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
88 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Alexandr Troshechkin 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 is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nikolay Kostadinov is living that version at Rotor, and it tends to show in the first month.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Daniil Kashmin has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rotor have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rotor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Aznaurov 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 dugoutIvan Lomaev knocks on the manager’s door
The words a physio says slowly. 102 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Georgy Melkadze 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artem Simonyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The words a physio says slowly. 109 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rotor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 3, 52 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Georgy Melkadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
117 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rotor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rotor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Aznaurov 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.
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.
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Georgy Melkadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Rotor will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rotor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Georgy Yudintsev 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Sergey Makarov'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.
Nobody at Rotor 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.
Alexandr Korotkov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Imran Aznaurov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Jimmy Marín and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Lomaev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Alexandr Troshechkin 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 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.
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
6 new faces, and Rotor are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rotor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Alexandr Khubulov is on it.
Abu-Said Eldarushev 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Georgy Melkadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.37. 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.
Everybody at Rotor saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Artem Simonyan will call it something else in private.
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Rotor will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Ivan Lomaev
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.
Georgy Yudintsev 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 dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Sergey Makarov'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.
Nobody at Rotor 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against KAMAZ in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
Alexandr Kleschenko 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Bogdan Gagarin left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rotor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Georgy Melkadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.19 — 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Rotor has been clear about where Alexandr Korotkov stands, which is more than many ever get.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Ivan Lomaev.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Rotor know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Ivan Lomaev
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutNikita Chagrov asks for a word with the manager
“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 Rotor, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rotor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Up for the corner, and Pavel Gorelov delivers — 7.97
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Pavel Gorelov scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Rotor close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“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; Rotor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Rotor know now that the thought has arrived.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Rotor and Neftekhimik, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Georgy Melkadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 3, 44 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Everything agreed with Lokomotiv Moscow, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Akhmat Grozny keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Moscow have kept their man, and Rotor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Abu-Said Eldarushev 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.
Rotor asked and Volgar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Daniil Grada will call it something else in private.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Bogdan Gagarin on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sevastopol had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nikola Knežević. 2‑0 against Yenisey, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.17 — 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.
Sergey Makarov 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
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.
Position 3, 37 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pavel Gorelov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Rotor will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bogdan Gagarin after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Simonyan 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Rotor will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.97 for the rest of it.
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.
Everybody at Rotor saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
It needed Alexandr Troshechkin to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Shinnik, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Atsamaz Revazov, and the manager let it.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Bogdan Gagarin was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Rotor dressing room was either.
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.
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Said Aliev 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mikhail Umnikov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Rotor have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Bogdan Gagarin after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Nikolay Poyarkov 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 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Rotor is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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 Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑1 to Chernomorets, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
David Davidyan 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
SKA Khabarovsk next, and one man in the Rotor dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Rotor will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Said Aliev 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikola Knežević has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Abu-Said Eldarushev decided nobody was going anywhere. Chaika had no time left to answer.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Simonyan 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Danilkin 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.
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.
Georgy Yudintsev 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.
Something was said to Nikola Knežević and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rotor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Alexandr Troshechkin 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. Said Aliev 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.
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.
Alexandr Troshechkin 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.
Nobody at Rotor 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Fakel in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
Nikolay Poyarkov 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rotor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Said Aliev 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Yegor Danilkin has his answer from Rotor; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rotor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.48. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rotor.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Pavel Gorelov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. 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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nikola Knežević. 2‑1 against Spartak Kostroma, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikola Knežević has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Imran Aznaurov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Jefferson Araújo 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Said Aliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
46 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
13 new faces, and Rotor are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikola Knežević trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Matías Noriega is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
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 Imran Aznaurov is on it.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Alexandr Khubulov obliged against Metallurg. 5‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Rotor.
6 goals in one match, Alexandr Khubulov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Rotor and Metallurg.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Simonyan 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 a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Alexandr Troshechkin 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 Artem Simonyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abu-Said Eldarushev. 1‑0 against Yenisey, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Bogdan Gagarin on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A brace, and Said Aliev takes the afternoon — 8.61
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Said Aliev provided it, and the 8.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Rotor and Rodina in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Said Aliev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vojvodina have kept their man, and Rotor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikolay Pokidyshev, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑4 Bogdan Gagarin left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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 Rotor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
Rotor asked and ETO Győr said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Rotor will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rotor can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Moscow have kept their man, and Rotor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Rotor know which stage they are at.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Rotor are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rotor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Said Aliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Rotor asked and Dinamo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A 2‑1 win over Torpedo Moscow, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
Sergey Makarov 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 is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Rotor are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
Jefferson Araújo 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Ilja Gaponov'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.
Wieczysta Kraków 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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
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.
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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Bogdan Gagarin after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Everything agreed with Vojvodina, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Alexandr Troshechkin 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 Said Aliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nizhniy Novgorod have kept their man, and Rotor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vlad Zhirinovsky 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Daniil Kotov 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nil Artemov 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. Vladislav Maslov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
Player ratingsArtem Simonyan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Chernomorets will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Rotor were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Said Aliev takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Said Aliev provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Imran Aznaurov did not need any: 8.38, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
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.