From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roman Akbashev
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ural lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Ural have had the benefit of it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Ural
Léo Cordeiro 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Marked 8.83 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match2 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vladislav Sarveli. 1‑0 against Rotor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
14 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Defensive actions: 13. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
Roman Akbashev damages knee ligaments — 52 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
Ural say no — this time
The offer from Mineros de Guayana for Martin Sekulić 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Silvije Begić, 33, rolls back the years — 8.59
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.59 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad28 Dec 2026
12 goals and a season average of 7.50. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Léo Cordeiro in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ural this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
Roman Akbashev damages knee ligaments — 59 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Ilja Kutepov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match19 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Ural training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yury Zheleznov 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Vladislav Sarveli
6 goals and a season average of 7.28 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roman Akbashev
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ural lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match14 Dec 2026
Ural up to position 3
36 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 28. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 27 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Léo Cordeiro in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ural this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A performance of 9.37 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
Ural supporters have found a favourite in Daniil Zorin
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniil Zorin has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings14 Dec 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Ural get the job done against Sokol
A 1‑0 win over Sokol, 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
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roman Akbashev
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ural lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Silvije Begić, 33, rolls back the years — 9.24
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.24 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Léo Cordeiro for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Ural will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Silvije Begić
11 goals and a season average of 7.50 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Ural
Léo Cordeiro 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roman Akbashev
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ural lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Nov 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market30 Nov 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Léo Cordeiro in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ural this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
653% of the income goes out in wages at Ural
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Martin Sekulić
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match28 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Doors closed at Ural
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roman Akbashev
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ural lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match18 Nov 2026
Cup progress for Ural
A 2‑1 win over Rotor, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match18 Nov 2026
Cruel end for Rotor as Ural pounce
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Ural scored in the 101th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad23 Nov 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 Ural this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.85 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilja Kutepov, and the manager let it.
Match21 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.52, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Ural training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yury Zheleznov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
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Player ratings
Yury Zheleznov runs at them all day
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Ural dressing room in a hurry
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Player ratings
Evgeny Markov could have had three
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roman Akbashev
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ural lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match14 Nov 2026
11 unbeaten for Ural
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Ural did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Silvije Begić, 33, rolls back the years — 8.95
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.95 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Silvije Begić
10 goals and a season average of 7.50 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Léo Cordeiro in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ural this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The Ural dressing room has split into 4 groups
Squads form friendships and that is healthy; this is not that. 4 separate groups, 2 players belonging to none of them, and a set of tables at lunch that have stopped rearranging themselves. It very rarely fixes itself.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Vladislav Sarveli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.75. 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.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“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 Ural, and 0 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad9 Nov 2026
Roman Akbashev damages knee ligaments — 105 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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.
Match9 Nov 2026
Ural up to position 2
29 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Silvije Begić, 33, rolls back the years — 9.04
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.04 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match7 Nov 2026
Ural cannot stop winning
5 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Evgeny Kharin: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ural have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 27, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Ural
Léo Cordeiro 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Silvije Begić is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.44 with 9 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 21, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad2 Nov 2026
Roman Akbashev damages knee ligaments — 114 days out
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.
Match31 Oct 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Silvije Begić takes the afternoon — 9.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Silvije Begić provided it, and the 9.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match31 Oct 2026
Ural 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 ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Nov 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 Ural this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
653% of the income goes out in wages at Ural
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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.85, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad2 Nov 2026
8 goals and a season average of 7.38. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad26 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roman Akbashev
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ural lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Age has not caught Silvije Begić yet — 9.65
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.65 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
26 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Ural 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Ural
Léo Cordeiro 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Ural. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
21 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Ilja Kutepov gets it from the manager
“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
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
Roman Akbashev damages knee ligaments — 130 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 130 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A defender's afternoon for Léo Cordeiro
Defensive actions: 29. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 27 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match17 Oct 2026
7 unbeaten for Ural
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Ural did not have in the autumn.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Léo Cordeiro in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ural this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 8.58 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Yury Zheleznov 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
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roman Akbashev
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ural lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match10 Oct 2026
5‑2, and Daniil Zorin took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Ural tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad12 Oct 2026
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Ural
Léo Cordeiro 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Ural and Volga in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A performance of 9.81 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match10 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Ural
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.99, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
In brief
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Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Egor Bogomolskiy at his very best
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The terraces
The crowd has taken to Yury Zheleznov
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Match
Another one collected away from home
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roman Akbashev
147 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ural lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match30 Sep 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Gabriel Toloza obliged against Torpedo Miass. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Ural.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 33. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Ural
Silvije Begić 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Evgeny Kharin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.98. 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 1214% of everything Ural earn
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.
Match30 Sep 2026
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Gabriel Toloza in the middle of it, and Torpedo Miass unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roman Akbashev
154 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ural lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
30 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 30 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Market28 Sep 2026
Ural may not be able to give Léo Cordeiro what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Léo Cordeiro wants continental football; whether Ural can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Ural
Léo Cordeiro 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Léo Cordeiro in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ural this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Roman Akbashev 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.
Squad21 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Vladislav Sarveli at his very best
Marked 8.50. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Ural.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Ural
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ural and Ufa take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
Everybody has an opinion about Martin Sekulić
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 5.70, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Silvije Begić, 33, rolls back the years — 9.66
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.66 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Ural training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Akbashev 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Ural
Rodrigo Godoy 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 terraces14 Sep 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match12 Sep 2026
Chaika made Ural work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Ural
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Ural are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Léo Cordeiro in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ural this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 919% of everything Ural earn
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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ural come up short against Rotor
Rotor left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Yury Zheleznov 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ilja Ishkov is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Ural will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Loan watch7 Sep 2026
“I watch every Ural game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dinamo Moscow runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Silvije Begić yet — 8.83
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Ural
Léo Cordeiro 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Ural training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Akbashev 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.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
Zenit will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Kirill Kosarev has pre-agreed a move to Ural, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexandr Selikhov's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Roman Akbashev, 34, rolls back the years — 9.01
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.01 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Léo Cordeiro in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ural this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Roman Akbashev 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Ilja Kutepov gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Ural say no — this time
The offer from CSKA Moscow for Silvije Begić 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Silvije Begić yet — 7.87
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ural this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Ural training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yury Zheleznov 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
KDV Tomsk will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ilja Volnov has pre-agreed a move to Ural, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Shots: 19. 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Ural
6 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A defender's afternoon for Léo Cordeiro
Defensive actions: 29. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Silvije Begić yet — 8.73
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.73 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Ural
Léo Cordeiro 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Nothing got past Ítalo
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Ural training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Akbashev 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 terraces10 Aug 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Neftekhimik, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Yury Zheleznov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
A move Vladislav Sarveli would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Vladislav Sarveli is living that version at Ural, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market3 Aug 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Silvije Begić and Ural agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Ural
Silvije Begić 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Selikhov, and the manager let it.
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Spartak Kostroma, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
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.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Ural dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
In brief
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Market
The clock runs on Ítalo's contract
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Market
Ural bring in an old head
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Player ratings
Evgeny Markov leaves them behind him