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.
Kirill Glebov 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. Anderson Arroyo 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.
At 22 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Rubin will try not to make too much of it.
Position 9, 21 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Rubin told Anderson Arroyo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Kirill Glebov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.43
A mark of 8.43 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.
Kirill Glebov 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Yegor Teslenko has his answer from Rubin; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ruslan Bezrukov, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Nov 2027
5 new faces, and Rubin 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Dmitri Prokofiev could afford to be generous.
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 Kirill Glebov is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yegor Teslenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Akron will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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. Anderson Arroyo 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 had been thinking. Anderson Arroyo 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniil Motorin 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.
“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; Rubin are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Dmitry Kabutov 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 Ruslan Bezrukov 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 Anderson Arroyo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Krylya Sovetov in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
8 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Martin Sekulić has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
4 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.
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.
Nikita Vasiljev 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 dugout4 Oct 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Evgeny Staver
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.
Something was said to Yegor Teslenko and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Rubin can tell you which week it ends in.
CSKA Moscow left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout27 Sep 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 0‑1 Dmitri Prokofiev left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Nobody at Rubin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ruslan Bezrukov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Rubin told Nazmi Gripshi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anderson Arroyo 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Rubin asked and Rotor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marvin Çuni 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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 Dardan Shabanhaxhaj is on 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 Rubin, and it is not being withdrawn.
He is going to Zenit, the club has $6.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The offer from Krasnodar for Edvinas Gertmonas 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.
Igor Vujačić 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 Anderson Arroyo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Rubin asked and Rayo Vallecano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rubin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniil Kuznetsov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rubin the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dardan Shabanhaxhaj 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.
Rubin asked and Anderlecht 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 Ruslan Bezrukov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Rayo Vallecano 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Yegor Teslenko scored, was marked 7.73, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Dardan Shabanhaxhaj 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 Anderson Arroyo 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. Arsenal Tula have kept their man, and Rubin go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Krylya Sovetov have accepted the money. What Rubin do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer from Saturn for Daniil Kuznetsov 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 chase for Anton Mitryushkin ended with $970.0K changing hands and Lokomotiv Moscow out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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 Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Rubin know it.
Dmitry Kabutov 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 had been thinking. Ruslan Bezrukov 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 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
6 new faces, and Rubin 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin can pretend not to have heard.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Ural will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Saturn waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rubin 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 Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anderson Arroyo 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.
Rubin asked and CSKA 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikita Vasiljev 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Rubin will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rubin people have started saying his name in the past tense.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Konstantin Nizhegorodov 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. Anderson Arroyo 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.55, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Igor Vujačić 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rubin have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Dinamo Minsk for Ruslan Bezrukov 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.
Igor Vujačić 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. Anderson Arroyo 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.
Baltika will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Yegor Lyubakov has pre-agreed a move to Rubin, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
6 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rubin have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rubin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Jacques Siwe was one of the reasons people came, and $8.1M does not replace that by itself.
Krylya Sovetov paid $5.4M and Rubin took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Dardan Shabanhaxhaj 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.
$29.0K on the table at Krylya Sovetov. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Igor Vujačić 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rubin people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Aleksandar Jukić had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Nyíregyháza for Anderson Arroyo 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.
Rubin and Ural have settled on $2.7M. 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rubin they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Emil Galimullin is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Vujačić 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 phone has started ringing about Aleksandar Jukić again, and this time the name on the line is Rotor. Rubin are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krylya Sovetov have kept their man, and Rubin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Dmitry Kabutov 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.
Nobody at Rubin 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jacques Siwe signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Kirill Glebov 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 had been thinking. Igor Vujačić 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Rubin, another week without a signature from Edvinas Gertmonas.
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 Kirill Glebov is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rubin will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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; Rubin are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Bogdan Jočić 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Igor Vujačić 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yuriy Kolesnikov 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. Platon Yashin 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gleb Karimov 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. Sergey Zyuzin is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rubin will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniil Kuznetsov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rubin the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Bogdan Jočić 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 had been thinking. Ruslan Bezrukov 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout31 May 2027
Nazmi Gripshi is still being punished for one mistake
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.
Nobody at Rubin 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rubin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rubin know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rubin 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 Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Vujačić 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 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 Dardan Shabanhaxhaj is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jacques Siwe signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Nazmi Gripshi has written the date down.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rubin will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Vujačić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Kirill Glebov is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Edvinas Gertmonas has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rubin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ruslan Bezrukov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Aleksandar Jukić has his answer from Rubin; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Veldin Hodža’s exile
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rubin will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniil Kuznetsov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rubin the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rubin can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Vujačić 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 dugout3 May 2027
Nazmi Gripshi is still being punished for one mistake
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Daniil Kuznetsov has his answer from Rubin; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Rubin 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.
In brief
The dugoutNazmi Gripshi knocks on the manager’s door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rubin will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Kirill Glebov 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. Igor Vujačić 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 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 Dardan Shabanhaxhaj is on it.
In brief
The dugoutNazmi Gripshi asks for a word with the manager
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rubin will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruslan Bezrukov 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 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 Kirill Glebov is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dardan Shabanhaxhaj signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Rubin. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rubin will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Bogdan Jočić 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 Igor Vujačić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Edvinas Gertmonas knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniil Kuznetsov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rubin the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rubin can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nazmi Gripshi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Nazmi Gripshi is still being punished for one mistake
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 Jacques Siwe is on it.
The name of Ugochukwu Iwu has come up in conversations Rubin were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruslan Bezrukov 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 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 Baqtiiar Zainutdinov is on it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Vujačić 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 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 Ilja Samoshnikov is on 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 Rubin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dardan Shabanhaxhaj signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Nazmi Gripshi has written the date down.
“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 Rubin, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Krylya Sovetov moved on, Aleksandar Jukić reports back to Rubin, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Dmitry Kabutov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Igor Vujačić 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.
Everybody at Rubin saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 39 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 deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Rubin will try again when the window opens; Krylya Sovetov may not be selling by then.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Rubin know it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin can pretend not to have heard.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Zenit moved on, Dmitry Kabutov reports back to Rubin, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rubin is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rubin can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rubin have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Rubin, and it is not being withdrawn.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 120th minute. Krasnodar will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Rubin have gone to Rostov with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Krylya Sovetov moved on, Bogdan Jočić reports back to Rubin, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Kirill Glebov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.91
A mark of 7.91 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sochi were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Vujačić 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Kirill Glebov 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Nazmi Gripshi 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 name of Ugochukwu Iwu has come up in conversations Rubin were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Rubin asked and Dinamo Makhachkala said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anderson Arroyo, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Dmitri Prokofiev to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Rubin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rubin they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
1 for Ignacio Saavedra, marked 7.94, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The deal with Nizhniy Novgorod 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Kirill Glebov from CSKA Moscow for $11.6M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Vujačić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have shaken hands with CSKA Moscow; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Rubin know it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Igor Vujačić 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Moscow have kept their man, and Rubin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Koper have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ugochukwu Iwu. The answer from Rubin has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Rubin pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Dmitri Prokofiev was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Rubin dressing room was either.
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 Baqtiiar Zainutdinov is on it.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against CSKA Moscow.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Nazmi Gripshi will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Rubin escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The offer from Nasaf for Ilja Rozhkov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Vujačić 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nazmi Gripshi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rubin they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Saavedra 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.
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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Rubin know 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin 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 Igor Vujačić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 39 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Dmitri Prokofiev on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Vujačić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yegor Teslenko, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Dmitri Prokofiev was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Rubin dressing room was either.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Nizhniy Novgorod in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniil Kuznetsov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rubin the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Spartak Moscow; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Ruslan Bezrukov 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.06, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Dmitri Prokofiev to a room that had heard them before.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 7.58 for the rest of it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dardan Shabanhaxhaj. 3‑2 against Rostov, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Igor Vujačić 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 no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Evgeny Staver is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Rubin know it.
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Igor Vujačić 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.
Yegor Teslenko 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.
18 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Position 8, 20 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Dmitri Prokofiev after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rubin may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Up for the corner, and Veldin Hodža delivers — 7.86
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Veldin Hodža scored, was marked 7.86, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniil Kuznetsov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rubin the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Bogdan Jočić 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. Igor Vujačić 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 will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Vujačić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Dmitri Prokofiev on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rubin have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Minute 89, against Sochi, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Dmitri Prokofiev after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Rubin is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Vujačić 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Dinamo Moscow scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Something was said to Veldin Hodža and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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 Daniil Kuznetsov is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sochi in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rubin they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Vujačić 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.
Ruslan Bezrukov 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dardan Shabanhaxhaj. 2‑1 against Lokomotiv Moscow, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
The goal that put Lokomotiv Moscow ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Rubin equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Baqtiiar Zainutdinov 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Rubin is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“I watch every Rubin game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Krylya Sovetov runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Rubin has been clear about where Bogdan Jočić stands, which is more than many ever get.
Something was said to Baqtiiar Zainutdinov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rubin, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ilja Samoshnikov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Rubin needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Igor Vujačić 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dmitri Prokofiev after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Rubin know it.
Bogdan Jočić 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 had been thinking. Igor Vujačić 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 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dmitri Prokofiev after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniil Kuznetsov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rubin the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nazmi Gripshi 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
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 0‑2 Dmitri Prokofiev left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Rubin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Vujačić 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.08, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I watch every Rubin game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Krylya Sovetov runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Evgeny Staver
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Rubin have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Rubin had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cortulua, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Igor Vujačić 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.
Rubin asked and Lokomotiv 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Rubin than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rubin can pretend not to have heard.
Rubin asked and Spartak 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.
Ruslan Bezrukov 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 particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dardan Shabanhaxhaj provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Add another name to the list: Spartak Kostroma have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Daniil Kuznetsov. The answer from Rubin has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Vujačić 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. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Rubin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
A 2‑0 win over Nizhniy Novgorod, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Vujačić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Yegor Teslenko 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Dmitri Prokofiev after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rubin people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Nizhniy Novgorod for Alexandr Zotov 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Rubin have done the hard part with Dinamo Moscow, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krylya Sovetov have kept their man, and Rubin go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Edvinas Gertmonas is living that version at Rubin, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rubin can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: KAMAZ have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Daniil Kuznetsov. The answer from Rubin has not changed — yet.
Rubin asked and Atlanta United FC 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rubin, and both men came out saying it was fine.