Marked for Daniil Antonenko
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.83, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market27 Sep 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Dinamo Vologda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Age has not caught César Taján yet — 7.81
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market27 Sep 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Vologda they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Danila Yezhkov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match25 Sep 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Danila Yezhkov. 2‑1 against Yenisey 2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad27 Sep 2027
50 goals for this club, and somewhere in the stand there is a person who can still tell you where they were for most of them.
Boardroom27 Sep 2027
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Yaroslav Frolov
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 Sep 2027
Roman Anikeev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Vologda can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Sep 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 Dinamo Vologda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
César Taján is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Match18 Sep 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nikita Kireev. 1‑0 against Cherepovets, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vsevolod Bykov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
A mark of 7.90, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gledis Kasa commits to Dinamo Vologda for another 3 years.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Danila Kalin asks for a word with the manager
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Player ratings
Danila Yezhkov keeps on missing
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mikhail Petrolay
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Vologda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Jul 2027
“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 Dinamo Vologda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Artem Isik 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Dinamo Vologda asked and Ryazan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
Wages eat 155% of everything Dinamo Vologda 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.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Mikhail Lyamzin
“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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Ural: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dinamo Vologda told Daniil Antonenko something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Andrey Yakovlev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Vologda will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mikhail Petrolay
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Vologda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match31 May 2027
Position 2 and 46 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market31 May 2027
“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.
Squad31 May 2027
Artem Isik and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Vsevolod Bykov
“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.
The dugout31 May 2027
Something was said to Danila Yezhkov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 May 2027
100 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Vologda lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad10 May 2027
Faisal Ismail Abdelrahim and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danil Spodarets, and the manager let it.
Market10 May 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dinamo Vologda, another week without a signature from Vsevolod Bykov.
The dugout10 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladislav Yanchenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market10 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nikita Kireev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mikhail Petrolay
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Vologda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match3 May 2027
Position 2 and 46 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad3 May 2027
Artem Isik and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout3 May 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dinamo Vologda told Roman Anikeev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniil Bortsov, and the manager let it.
Market3 May 2027
“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.
Squad3 May 2027
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The dugout3 May 2027
“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.
Market3 May 2027
The César Taján story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until César Taján signs something — a contract at Dinamo Vologda or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mikhail Petrolay
121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Vologda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market19 Apr 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vasily Chekavinskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Vologda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Artem Isik 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.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
Wages swallow 208% of the Dinamo Vologda 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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Mikhail Petrolay 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.
Market19 Apr 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Artem Isik’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Danil Spodarets is not doing himself any favours
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mikhail Petrolay
128 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Vologda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Artem Isik and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Apr 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.
Market12 Apr 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Vologda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Vladislav Yanchenko has written the date down.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Mar 2027
Mikhail Petrolay damages knee ligaments — 142 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 142 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Faisal Ismail Abdelrahim 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 dugout29 Mar 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.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Danila Yezhkov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Vologda will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Dinamo Vologda will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Mar 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Artem Isik and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Mikhail Petrolay 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 dugout15 Mar 2027
“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.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Faisal Ismail Abdelrahim trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market15 Mar 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Vologda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market22 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Vologda can pretend not to have heard.
Market22 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chertanovo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Vologda is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Marked 8.01 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match20 Feb 2027
Nobody wants to play Dinamo Vologda 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Artem Isik 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.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Wages swallow 242% of the Dinamo Vologda 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.
The terraces22 Feb 2027
At 20 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
A 2‑0 win over Spartak Moscow 2, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Dinamo Vologda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Petrolay 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Vologda can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Artem Isik 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 Dinamo Vologda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Match9 Jan 2027
Irkutsk left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Dinamo Vologda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Petrolay 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 dugout11 Jan 2027
“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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Artyom Reshetnikov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dinamo Vologda told Anton Betyuzhnov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.80, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match19 Oct 2026
Position 3 and 17 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nikita Krivoruchko is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Artem Isik 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 Dinamo Vologda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ronas Abdo commits to Dinamo Vologda for another 3 years.
Match17 Oct 2026
Late, late show earns Dinamo Vologda a point
Minute 86, against Baltika 2, 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.
The dugout19 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 3‑3 draw with Baltika 2 leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
2‑4 against Rubin Yalta, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and PSK Pervorechenskoe waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Vologda is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Vologda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market24 Aug 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 Dinamo Vologda can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Match19 Aug 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Dinamo Vologda and Rubin Yalta in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match22 Aug 2026
Kolomna made Dinamo Vologda work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad24 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 Dinamo Vologda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.