Marked for Konstantin Simakov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Kaluga
Ilja Grischenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match15 Jan 2028
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Daud Daliev is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Igor Sokolov 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 Igor Sokolov is on it.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad17 Jan 2028
The division's best last weekend was a Kaluga man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Sergey Iljin was the best thing in any of them.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sergey Krotov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
A mark of 5.38 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.17, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match10 Jan 2028
Kaluga are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 37 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market10 Jan 2028
Only the photograph left for Rizvan Tashaev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rizvan Tashaev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kaluga the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Kaluga
Sergey Iljin 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.
Match8 Jan 2028
Volna made Kaluga work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Zeki Aliev 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Igor Sokolov is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.29 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Evgeny Kurlov, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rizvan Tashaev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Jul 2027
No end in sight to Torpedo Vladimir's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Torpedo Vladimir has to find a result from somewhere.
Market26 Jul 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 Torpedo Vladimir can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The deal with SKA Khabarovsk is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Match24 Jul 2027
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Torpedo Vladimir can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Stanislav Utkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergey Chernenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match24 Jul 2027
Luki-Energiya left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Yegor Okulov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Kuban have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout22 Mar 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Sergey Zapalatskiy 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
Wages swallow 180% of the Torpedo Vladimir 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.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Torpedo Vladimir, and 3 appearances in 32 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Narek Gasparyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“I want to play”: Maxim Vafiev speaks
“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.
Boardroom22 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Artem Gerasimov
“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.
Market22 Mar 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Torpedo Vladimir know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 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 Vladimir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Sergey Zapalatskiy 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
“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 dugout15 Mar 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.
Market15 Mar 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Daniil Kleiner may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
22 appearances at Znamya Truda and the goals keep coming. Torpedo Vladimir are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Torpedo Vladimir would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Artem Gerasimov 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jan 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Vladimir will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad11 Jan 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 Vladimir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Konstantin Popov 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 terraces11 Jan 2027
At 22 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Sergey Chernenko at his very best
Marked 8.01. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Torpedo Vladimir.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danil Glinskiy, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match16 Nov 2026
23 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad16 Nov 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 Torpedo Vladimir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Konstantin Popov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Something was said to Danil Sobolev and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Zvezda in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market16 Nov 2026
The Maxim Vafiev story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Vafiev signs something — a contract at Torpedo Vladimir or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Ivan Nesterov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Torpedo Vladimir 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.