Marked for Soumaïla Traoré
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Apr 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Krasnodar can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout14 Apr 2036
“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.
Market14 Apr 2036
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Krasnodar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Apr 2036
Words exchanged at Krasnodar
Ivan Belikov 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.
Squad14 Apr 2036
Sergey Varatynov 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.
Market14 Apr 2036
“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.
Squad14 Apr 2036
6 new faces, and Krasnodar are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Market14 Apr 2036
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lazar Branković has his answer from Krasnodar; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout14 Apr 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikita Bogatyrev, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Mar 2036
“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.
The dugout17 Mar 2036
“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.
Match15 Mar 2036
Still nobody has beaten Krasnodar
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match15 Mar 2036
The run is over for Krasnodar
9 matches without defeat, and then Chelyabinsk. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Market17 Mar 2036
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Krasnodar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom17 Mar 2036
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Dmitry Gusev has agreed terms with Cherepovets for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad17 Mar 2036
Sergey Pryakhin 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.
Squad17 Mar 2036
Defences have started doubling up on Sergey Pryakhin
10 goals and a season average of 7.23 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout17 Mar 2036
“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.
In brief
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The dugout
A promise honoured at Krasnodar
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Squad
Krasnodar are still strangers to each other
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Squad
Words at Krasnodar training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match16 Feb 2036
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market18 Feb 2036
“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.
Squad18 Feb 2036
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market18 Feb 2036
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Krasnodar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match16 Feb 2036
Krasnodar make it 6 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Krasnodar have 6 straight wins of it.
Match16 Feb 2036
Krasnodar keep winning on the road
7 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Transfer targets18 Feb 2036
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ural is saying, and nobody at Krasnodar is enjoying the guessing.
Market18 Feb 2036
So close: Artem Rogov’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Ufa moved on, Artem Rogov reports back to Krasnodar, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Sergey Pryakhin 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 Dec 2035
Krasnodar cannot stop winning
9 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market24 Dec 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Krasnodar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market24 Dec 2035
“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 ratings24 Dec 2035
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match22 Dec 2035
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The dugout24 Dec 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Krasnodar may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Sergey Pryakhin 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.
Market24 Dec 2035
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Evgeny Latyshonok is a Krasnodar player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Soumaïla Traoré arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Soumaïla Traoré has, at Krasnodar, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Dec 2034
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. America de Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market18 Dec 2034
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around America de Cali people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market18 Dec 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what America de Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Dec 2034
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 America de Cali have had the benefit of it.
Squad18 Dec 2034
A move Fernando Álvarez 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. Fernando Álvarez is living that version at America de Cali, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market18 Dec 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at America de Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom18 Dec 2034
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.
Squad18 Dec 2034
James Mina 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 America de Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market18 Dec 2034
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Nov 2034
94 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. America de Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market20 Nov 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at America de Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market20 Nov 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what America de Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Nov 2034
James Mina 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 America de Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market20 Nov 2034
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether America de Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The dugout20 Nov 2034
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at America de Cali, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout20 Nov 2034
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 Miguel Gonzalez is on it.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivo Visona was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad20 Nov 2034
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Oct 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Angelo Marchese
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. America de Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market30 Oct 2034
“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 America de Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match30 Oct 2034
The season ends: position 9 for America de Cali
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 56 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Market30 Oct 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at America de Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout30 Oct 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” America de Cali may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings30 Oct 2034
Jhojan Torres pops up at the right end — 7.74
7.74, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Market30 Oct 2034
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad30 Oct 2034
James Mina and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match28 Oct 2034
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Cortulua were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Sep 2034
“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.
Market11 Sep 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at America de Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Sep 2034
43 days out for Samuel Bermúdez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. America de Cali will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout11 Sep 2034
“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 Sep 2034
James Mina 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.
Market11 Sep 2034
Tomás Muia wants European nights
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad11 Sep 2034
A muscle injury sidelines Juan Carlos Rolón for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. America de Cali will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad11 Sep 2034
10 new faces, and America de Cali are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout11 Sep 2034
“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.