Marked for Alexandr Rendakov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Jul 2029
Levadia refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 43 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market30 Jul 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Levadia can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Artur Pikk 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Mihkel Ainsalu 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.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
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.
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
161% of the income goes out in wages at Levadia
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.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
A loan move for Mikhail Klyakin is in the works
Levadia have made the call to Dinamo Minsk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to Dynamo Kyiv: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
No thanks: Kristen Lapa rejects the move
Levadia had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Flora, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words exchanged at Levadia
Mollo Bessala 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Alexandr Karnitskiy, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Mihkel Ainsalu 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.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
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.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
A loan move for Lorenzo Costoli is in the works
Levadia have made the call to Genoa. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
Artur Pikk gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Artur Pikk is on it.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
Alexey Zhechko knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexey Zhechko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market23 Jul 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Alexandr Rendakov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Nov 2028
Levadia up to position 3
41 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad20 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Levadia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Levadia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mihkel Ainsalu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Ruslan Teverov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Levadia 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
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 dugout20 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kirill Krutorozhkin, and the manager let it.
Market20 Nov 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market20 Nov 2028
Levadia have made Marius Vister available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Levadia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Nov 2028
The small margins put Levadia out
Out, 1‑2 to Flora, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Miloš Jovičić
20 goals and a season average of 7.53 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad13 Nov 2028
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Levadia had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad13 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Levadia
Mollo Bessala and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Nov 2028
12 clean sheets and the golden glove for Artem Makavchik
The one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 12 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
Boardroom13 Nov 2028
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mihkel Ainsalu, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Smorgon
Dmitry Vorobjov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Artem Stankevich 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 dugout17 Jan 2028
“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
Uneasy
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Artem Stankevich: 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.” Smorgon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market10 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexandr Rendakov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Smorgon the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Smorgon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Artem Stankevich and Smorgon agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Kirill Yelagin 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 dugout10 Jan 2028
Vadim Galko 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
Uneasy
Squad3 Jan 2028
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 Smorgon have had the benefit of it.
Market3 Jan 2028
Vadim Galko has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Smorgon they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Alexandr Rendakov has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Smorgon
Alexandr Naumovich 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Smorgon
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Egor Babich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gleb Aldanov commits to Smorgon for another 3 years.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“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.
Market3 Jan 2028
The name of Dmitry Vorobjov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Smorgon say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
Nobody at Smorgon 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.