Denis Polyakov 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. Nikolay Sotnikov 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.
Denis Polyakov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Yegor Kortsov 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nikita Krasnov is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruslan Teverov 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 done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Arsenal Dzerzhinsk will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Yegor Kortsov 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nazar Makeev and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk agree another 3 years.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Denis Polyakov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Arsenal Dzerzhinsk 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 Arsenal Dzerzhinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Valeriy Gorbachik is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolay Sotnikov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Denis Polyakov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Kortsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Chances created: 11. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Valeriy Gorbachik’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nobody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
At 26 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk have a decision that made itself.
Denis Polyakov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Yegor Kortsov 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.
Minute 92, against Naftan, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
It needed Valeriy Gorbachik to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Naftan, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ruslan Klimovich chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Denis Polyakov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ruslan Teverov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk asked and Neman said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.78, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“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 dugout31 Aug 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 1‑2 Ruslan Klimovich left the room before anybody could ask which.