There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Maxim Turischev provided it, and the 8.06 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 The request is on a desk at Rubin, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ilja Rozhkov 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.
“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.
The name of Mikhail Okulov has come up in conversations Rubin were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
432 appearances across 15 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Lucas Myklebust is living that version at Rubin, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Rubin heard it as anything else.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Fakel spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Teslenko 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.
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.
Mathias Jensen is 19, and Rubin have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“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: Akron have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luka Stankovski. 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.
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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
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. Yegor Teslenko 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.
Konstantin Maradishvili is 38 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.
6 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Maxim Turischev provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Rubin and Chelyabinsk, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
KAMAZ will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Kirill Stepanov 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.
Liam White 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.
“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.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Ilja Rozhkov 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. Yegor Teslenko 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.
1‑2 to Yenisey, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings2 Aug 2038
Artem Serikov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.89. 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 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Player ratings26 Jul 2038
Artem Serikov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.06. 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.
0‑3 to Akron, 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.
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Teslenko 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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Artyom Bessonov 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. 19 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 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kyrylo Kovalenko is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Spartak Moscow will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Pierre Collet 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.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Rubin heard it as anything else.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Maxim Turischev 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.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Ilja Rozhkov 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. Yegor Teslenko 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.
Rostov will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Dion Krasniqi 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.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gianluca Guerra is living that version at Rubin, and it tends to show in the first month.
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 fee is $69.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Spartak Nalchik drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Hadi Baghban has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rubin have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Teslenko 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.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Teslenko 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.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
In brief
SquadYegor Teslenko falls out with a teammate over standards
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Nikola Čumić 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Rubin training over how hard people work
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
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.
“I watch every Rubin game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Salyut runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 had been thinking. Yegor Teslenko 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.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
In brief
SquadYegor Teslenko falls out with a teammate over standards
Boardroom96% of the income goes out in wages at Rubin
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nikola Čumić 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. Ilja Rozhkov 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikola Čumić signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
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.
“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 watch every Rubin game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Salyut runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Denis Malikov is living that version at Rubin, and it tends to show in the first month.
Nikola Čumić 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Maxim Turischev 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.
“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.
“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.
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. Yegor Teslenko 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikola Čumić signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 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.
“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.
Liam White 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 Rubin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Rubin spent the window trying to move Luka Stankovski on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Krasnodar go through and Rubin go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.65 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Maxim Turischev 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Teslenko 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.
11 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikola Čumić signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
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.
Maxim Turischev 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.
“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.
6 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.
“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.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Teslenko 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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 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.
Liam White 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.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Sergio Sánchez: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
A 1‑1 win over Pari Nizhniy Novgorod, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
16 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.
Nikola Čumić 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 3, 47 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Rubin heard it as anything 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: Maxim Turischev. 3‑1 against Sochi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Antonio De Cristofaro has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rubin have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Yegor Teslenko decided nobody was going anywhere. Fakel had no time left to answer.
14 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.84 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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. Yegor Teslenko 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.
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
23 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.
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.
“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.
20 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.
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.22 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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. Yegor Teslenko 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Daniel Svintsov has just signed for Rubin, and for once the answer mattered.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
12 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.
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 Makhachkala will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Alexey Lavrik 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.
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
29 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Teslenko 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.
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.08 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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 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.
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nikola Čumić 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. Yegor Teslenko 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.
Patrick Babel is 19, and Rubin have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Denis Vala is 37 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.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Roman Petrov has agreed terms with Rostov for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
23 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 43 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.47 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Maxim Turischev. 1‑0 against Ural, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ilja Rozhkov signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 114 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yegor Teslenko provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
Nikola Čumić 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. Yegor Teslenko 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.
Sokol will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Gabriel Lukačević 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2037
Ilja Rozhkov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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 words a physio says slowly. 121 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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Sokol will replay every second of the added time for a week.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.36 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Liam White 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anderson Arroyo signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 128 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.
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 had been thinking. Yegor Teslenko 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Dino Stanisic has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rubin have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 135 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Gabriel Reta obliged against Leningradets. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Rubin.
Player ratings5 Oct 2037
Francisco Reyes could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.37
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.37, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Spartak Kostroma will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Rubin scored in the 95th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Rubin heard it as anything else.
In brief
SquadYegor Teslenko falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 142 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.
Nikola Čumić 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. Yegor Teslenko 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nicolas Castillo has just signed for Rubin, and for once the answer mattered.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Mathias Lavenette has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rubin have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The words a physio says slowly. 149 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Adrien Louveau has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rubin have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anderson Arroyo signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 156 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.88 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Nikola Čumić 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. Yegor Teslenko 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.
Arsenal Tula will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Mamadou Coulibaly 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yegor Teslenko. 2‑1 against Rodina, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 163 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
8 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Rozhkov 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Joss Didiba 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Rubin told Sergio Sánchez something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.97 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Nikola Čumić 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Georgios Mavropanos 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. Yegor Teslenko 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
10 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.66 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The goal that put SKA Khabarovsk ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Rubin equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
It needed Luka Stankovski to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against SKA Khabarovsk, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
10 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
35 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Rubin heard it as anything else.
Nikola Čumić 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Vadim Pigas has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rubin have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.31 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Alessandro Minelli has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rubin have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
A 1‑0 win over Ufa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad27 Jul 2037
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.34 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
9 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Rozhkov 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Agustín Pereira has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rubin have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Arseny Ibragimov 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yakov Yevdokimov 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ilya Kozlov 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. Danila Kombarov 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.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Francisco Reyes is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
In brief
SquadYegor Teslenko falls out with a teammate over standards
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrea Zilio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rubin the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Andrea Zilio has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yegor Teslenko signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Gustav Lillienberg.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexandr Bem will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rubin the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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.
Squad29 Jun 2037
Ilja Rozhkov 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Rommell Ibarra has agreed terms with Rostov for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Nikola Čumić 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. Yegor Teslenko 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.
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.
“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.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and Rubin are still learning each other
Nikola Čumić 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. Ilja Rozhkov 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.
In brief
SquadYegor Teslenko falls out with a teammate over standards
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 had been thinking. Yegor Teslenko is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rubin will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Denzel Bergwijn is living that version at Rubin, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad18 May 2037
Ilja Rozhkov 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.
Andrea Zilio 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.
Quintijn Steelant is 40 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.
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.
“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.
Nikola Čumić 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Rubin training over how hard people work
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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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.
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.
“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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anderson Arroyo signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“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.
Nikola Čumić 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. Ilja Rozhkov 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.
Gabriel Pohl is 20, and Rubin have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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 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.
In brief
SquadIlja Rozhkov falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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 Rubin will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Ilja Rozhkov 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Rubin, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yegor Teslenko signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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 Rubin will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Rozhkov 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
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. Luka Stankovski 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.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Rubin could ask drops and the wages Luis López can ask rise.
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.
“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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gustav Lillienberg has just signed for Rubin, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Rozhkov 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yegor Teslenko signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Joss Didiba is 39 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.
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.
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.
6 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.
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.
Squad9 Mar 2037
Ilja Rozhkov 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.
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.
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
The words a physio says slowly. 63 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 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Luis López reports back to Rubin with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.31 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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 run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Rubin are no longer polite ones.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Ilja Rozhkov 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 words a physio says slowly. 77 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 Rubin will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
Nikola Čumić 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.
A season average of 7.41 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings16 Feb 2037
Ilja Rozhkov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yegor Teslenko signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Volga the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Rubin will enjoy reviewing.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Maxim Turischev provided it, and the 9.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.64 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 offer from Chaika for Leonardo Ribeiro 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.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
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.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.48 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 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.
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.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Ufa kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Rubin will be asked about the last half hour all week.
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 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.63 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.44 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Nikola Čumić 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.
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
119 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
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.
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.
126 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Rubin rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Rotor had no answer to any of 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 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.
10 goals and a season average of 7.35 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings29 Dec 2036
Andrea Zilio 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad29 Dec 2036
8 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.
133 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
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.
Marco Oliva 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. Andrey Mostovoy 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.
“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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
140 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.81 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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.
Nikola Čumić 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.
6 goals in one match, Dardan Shabanhaxhaj on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Rubin and Sokol.
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.
147 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
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.
154 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rubin lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
361 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Nikola Čumić 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.
Shots: 12. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 38 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.
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. Andrey Mostovoy 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 or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Ruslan Bezrukov decided otherwise. Yenisey had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.05 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Teslenko 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 finished 3‑2, and it was Ruslan Bezrukov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rubin.
Player ratings17 Nov 2036
Marco Oliva was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yegor Teslenko signs something — a contract at Rubin or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.52 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Mostovoy 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.
8 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.
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.
11 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
“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.
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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
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.
35 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Position 2, 27 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.53 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Valentin Tunchev has just signed for Rubin, and for once the answer mattered.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
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.
“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.
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.