Marked for Jakub Burkowski
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces3 Dec 2029
The mood at Korona has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market3 Dec 2029
“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.
Market3 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Korona is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Dec 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marcin Cebula commits to Korona for another 2 years.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Korona
Leo Bengtsson 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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Words at Korona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stjepan Davidović 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom22 Jan 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Avangard
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Avangard is running low.
Market22 Jan 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market22 Jan 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avangard they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom22 Jan 2029
Wages eat 117% of everything Avangard 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Jakub Burkowski has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Avangard 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
Uneasy
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Avangard
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Avangard is running low.
Market25 Dec 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Market25 Dec 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yegor Balitskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Dec 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
Wages eat 129% of everything Avangard 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Yegorov 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
Uneasy
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
Pressure builds in the Avangard boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market27 Nov 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Market27 Nov 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yegor Balitskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
Wages eat 147% of everything Avangard 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Yegorov 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
Uneasy
Market13 Nov 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Nov 2028
The medical room confirms 29 days on the sidelines for Jakub Burkowski, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad13 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Avangard
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Avangard is running low.
Market30 Oct 2028
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market30 Oct 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yegor Balitskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Danila Knyazev 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.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
Wages eat 157% of everything Avangard 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Daniel Yegorov 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
Uneasy
Match16 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Avangard's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Avangard has to find a result from somewhere.
Market18 Sep 2028
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match16 Sep 2028
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Rustam Asenchukov 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.
Squad18 Sep 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Sep 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.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Rizvan Tashaev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Avangard 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.
Match16 Sep 2028
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Irtysh defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 Sep 2028
Anger at Avangard spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market4 Sep 2028
“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.
Market4 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Avangard is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match2 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Avangard's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Avangard has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Danila Knyazev 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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
The owner puts $78.6K into Avangard
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
149% of the income goes out in wages at Avangard
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.
Match2 Sep 2028
0‑2 to Rodina 2, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad4 Sep 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
Market31 Jul 2028
“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 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Rasul Bidjilov is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Danila Knyazev has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Rustam Asenchukov 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.
Squad31 Jul 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Jul 2028
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Irtysh will be the happier side with the point.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
5.29. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Market31 Jul 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Avangard know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
A mark of 5.78 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Jun 2028
“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 terraces26 Jun 2028
He is going to Ural, the club has $130.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad26 Jun 2028
David Sarbashev 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.
Market26 Jun 2028
Ural paid $130.0K and Avangard took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Burkowski 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Avangard know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Jun 2028
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Jun 2028
The phone has started ringing about Jacob Beaumont-Clark again, and this time the name on the line is Ural. Avangard are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Jakub Burkowski 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.
Squad19 Jun 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
No signings allowed at Avangard
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
The Avangard debt reaches $5.1M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad19 Jun 2028
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.
Market19 Jun 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Avangard will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Dmitry Kumsarov 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
Crisis
Market29 May 2028
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 May 2028
Roman Volochay 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Burkowski 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
The terraces15 May 2028
Anger at Avangard spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom15 May 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Avangard
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Avangard is running low.
Market15 May 2028
“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.
Market15 May 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avangard they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 May 2028
Denis Traigel 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacob Beaumont-Clark 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.
Boardroom15 May 2028
Wages eat 170% of everything Avangard 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.
Squad15 May 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.
Squad15 May 2028
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Avangard has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 May 2028
Every point is an argument now for Avangard
Position 7 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Boardroom8 May 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom8 May 2028
Crisis meeting at Avangard
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market8 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 May 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom8 May 2028
$144.2K of the owner's money at Avangard
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Apr 2028
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Apr 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Jakub Burkowski 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.
Boardroom24 Apr 2028
No signings allowed at Avangard
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom24 Apr 2028
The Avangard debt reaches $4.9M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad24 Apr 2028
“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; Avangard are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Apr 2028
Anger at Avangard spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Avangard
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Avangard is running low.
Market17 Apr 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Market17 Apr 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avangard they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Danila Knyazev 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 Apr 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Burkowski 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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
215% of the income goes out in wages at Avangard
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.
Squad17 Apr 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Denis Traigel 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 Denis Traigel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market27 Mar 2028
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Roman Volochay is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad27 Mar 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Mar 2028
Avangard sink to position 7
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market13 Mar 2028
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Mar 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Feb 2028
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Feb 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
No signings allowed at Avangard
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Yegorov 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.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
The Avangard debt reaches $4.8M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad28 Feb 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
Crisis
The terraces21 Feb 2028
Anger at Avangard spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Jakub Burkowski damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Boardroom21 Feb 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Avangard
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market21 Feb 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yegor Balitskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market21 Feb 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom21 Feb 2028
185% of the income goes out in wages at Avangard
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.
Squad21 Feb 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“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; Avangard are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market21 Feb 2028
He is 17, and nobody at Avangard signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jakub Burkowski
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match14 Feb 2028
Avangard are in real trouble now
Position 7, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market14 Feb 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Jacob Beaumont-Clark 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Jackson Izquierdo 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.
Market14 Feb 2028
Everyone has stopped pretending: Pobeda will make the call about Yegor Balitskiy this week. Avangard have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jakub Burkowski
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Arseny Davydov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market7 Feb 2028
“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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Danila Knyazev 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The owner puts $64.7K into Avangard
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacob Beaumont-Clark 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Rustam Asenchukov loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Rustam Asenchukov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Market7 Feb 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alexandr Khrebtov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market7 Feb 2028
Avangard shop where it costs nothing
Rasul Bidjilov signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jakub Burkowski
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market31 Jan 2028
“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 Jan 2028
“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; Avangard are dealing with a man who wants a different country.