Marked for Mikhail Volkov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.63, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market14 Sep 2026
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Baltika moved on, Alexey Kashtanov reports back to Torpedo Moscow, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 6 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Torpedo Moscow until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market14 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vladislav Shitov. 3‑1 against Chaika, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Mario Ćurić 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 terraces14 Sep 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Ilja Berkovskiy at his very best
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Torpedo Moscow.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Leon Ćuk had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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 Torpedo Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Sep 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Torpedo Moscow have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mario Ćurić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonathan Okoronkwo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nikita Korets slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Nikita Korets is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Torpedo Moscow will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Chaika next, and one man in the Torpedo Moscow dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mario Ćurić 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
2‑4 to Arsenal Tula, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Danil Karpov 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. Danil Karpov is living that version at Torpedo Moscow, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gleb Shevchenko 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 dugout17 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexander Muci and Torpedo Moscow agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.