Marked for Mikhail Volkov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lokomotiv Moscow waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Torpedo Moscow is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market1 Feb 2027
Leon Ćuk puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at Torpedo Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Feb 2027
Mikhail Volkov has left for Ufa in a $310.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Match30 Jan 2027
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Ufa. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Ćurić 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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Torpedo Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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.
Match30 Jan 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Daniil Utkin’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Torpedo Moscow.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market1 Feb 2027
The fee is $310.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Torpedo Moscow drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“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; Ufa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Ufa
Klisman Cake 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
0‑2 to Torpedo Moscow, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match30 Jan 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“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.
In brief
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Artem Kasimov is in the works
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Loan watch
The goals keep arriving from Emil Maiorov’s exile
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Looking ahead
A test against the best for Ufa
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play Torpedo Moscow right now
4 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Ćurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A mark of 7.80, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ivan Ryzhov on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad21 Dec 2026
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Vladislav Shitov has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mikhail Volkov, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Nikita Bozov'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
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Ivan Khomukha out for 55 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ufa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market14 Sep 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Dilan Ortíz takes the afternoon — 8.88
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dilan Ortíz provided it, and the 8.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market14 Sep 2026
Ufa say no — this time
The offer from Nizhniy Novgorod for Dilan Ortíz 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Ufa 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Ufa asked and Torpedo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
Ufa supporters have found a favourite in Danil Akhatov
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Danil Akhatov 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Shinnik made Ufa work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout14 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.
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.