From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Salyut is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Maxim Kutovoy 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Spartak Tambov, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Sergey Gaiduk asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market26 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Kutovoy signs something — a contract at Salyut or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Up for the corner, and Alexandr Kanischev delivers — 7.63
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alexandr Kanischev scored, was marked 7.63, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Salyut — 7.19
1 for Vladislav Sergeev, marked 7.19, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Market19 Oct 2026
Yury Kudrevaty has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Salyut they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match17 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Salyut right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Maxim Kutovoy 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
66 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 2‑0 win over Znamya Truda, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 41. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match12 Oct 2026
Salyut refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 23 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“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 Salyut know it.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
Salyut supporters have found a favourite in David Gagua
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. David Gagua has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match10 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Maxim Kutovoy’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Salyut.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
The big one: Znamya Truda come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Salyut will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Salyut training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolay Boyarkin 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Maxim Kutovoy at his very best
Marked 8.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Salyut.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrey Ivanteev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match30 Sep 2026
Salyut bow out of the cup
Yenisey go through and Salyut go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
David Gagua, 19, steals the show — 7.68
Marked 7.68 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market5 Oct 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Salyut training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Kutovoy 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 405% of the Salyut income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Salyut
August Bryld and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Rodina M, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Salyut
5 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad28 Sep 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market28 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxim Shabaidakov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Salyut the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Salyut
Maxim Kutovoy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Salyut training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Vinnikov 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
15 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yegor Yelesin, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Miroslav Medvedev after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad28 Sep 2026
David Gagua is the weekend's best young player
At 19 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
David Gagua, 19, steals the show — 7.85
Marked 7.85 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market21 Sep 2026
Yury Kudrevaty has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Salyut they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market21 Sep 2026
The Amkar deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Semyon Abramov reports back to Salyut with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Salyut this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Nikolay Boyarkin 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vladislav Faskhutdinov, and the manager let it.
Match19 Sep 2026
Salyut caught on 86 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Dinamo Bryansk scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Dinamo Bryansk leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from David Gagua at 19 — 8.54
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. David Gagua did not need any: 8.54, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Salyut close the window on a squad of their own making
13 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Maxim Kutovoy 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was David Gagua’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Salyut.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Salyut ran out of time with Alania. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Miroslav Medvedev on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 46. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market7 Sep 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Salyut have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Salyut can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Maxim Kutovoy 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match5 Sep 2026
After 5 games, Salyut finally taste it again
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Zenit Penza; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Miroslav Medvedev left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Salyut
5 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market31 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Salyut have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match29 Aug 2026
Nobody wants to play Salyut right now
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 Salyut, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Salyut they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match29 Aug 2026
Salyut keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Maxim Kutovoy’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Salyut.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Salyut
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikolay Boyarkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 7.88 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Salyut had the best player on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 Aug 2026
Maxim Kutovoy wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Maxim Kutovoy found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Kvant went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Match19 Aug 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Salyut scored in the 117th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
David Gagua, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.11
A mark of 8.11 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Salyut, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 Aug 2026
Salyut cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for Salyut, 3‑1 the final word against Kvant in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Maxim Kutovoy 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market17 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Salyut have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
David Gagua, 19, steals the show — 7.67
Marked 7.67 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Salyut training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Kutovoy 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Salyut
Arseny Prokurorov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to David Gagua
At 19 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ryazan made Salyut work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Miroslav Medvedev kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Market17 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to KDV Tomsk this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Salyut
Maxim Kutovoy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$14.0K was the most the club would pay and Dinamo Vologda were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sergey Kovalev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bogdan Zhirkov 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vsevolod Lermontov 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Timofey Lapin 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Salyut
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikolay Boyarkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Maxim Kutovoy and Salyut agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Salyut
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Kutovoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Maxim Kutovoy. 2‑1 against Metallurg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Maxim Shabaidakov has come up in conversations Salyut were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match1 Aug 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Maxim Kutovoy had Salyut level again within 1 minutes, and Metallurg never got to play with a lead at all.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Maxim Kutovoy
7.96, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Salyut had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.