Marked for Matvey Kislyak
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Nov 2026
The longest week starts now for CSKA Moscow
Beaten 1‑2 by Dinamo Moscow in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Danil Krugovoy
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CSKA Moscow lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 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 CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout9 Nov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vladislav Torop commits to CSKA Moscow for another 5 years.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Vasily Kryukov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Matvey Lukin 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Bologna; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Match15 Aug 2026
3‑0, and Danil Krugovoy took the headlines on an afternoon when everything CSKA Moscow tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
No thanks: Karim Konaté rejects the move
CSKA Moscow had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Red Bull Salzburg, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market17 Aug 2026
Arsenal come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and CSKA Moscow did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Vojvodina had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
CSKA Moscow have gone to Nizhniy Novgorod with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Matvey Kislyak at 21 — 8.11
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matvey Kislyak did not need any: 8.11, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market17 Aug 2026
Business is business: Matheus Alves goes
Estrela da Amadora paid $6.2M and CSKA Moscow took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Matheus Alves has gone, the accounts have $6.2M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Bologna this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market10 Aug 2026
Zenit come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and CSKA Moscow did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
CSKA Moscow have gone to Krylya Sovetov with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
No deal for Tomáš Chorý at that price
CSKA Moscow offered $3.8M; Slavia Prague said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Moscow have kept their man, and CSKA Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matheus Alves wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.5M — a club that wants Fernando Costanza enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matvey Kislyak and CSKA Moscow agree another 5 years.
Squad10 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 CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
616 appearances across 24 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and CSKA Moscow know exactly what they have.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Slavia Prague this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
$2.8M on the table at Slavia Prague. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market3 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Luciano Gondou wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Igor Akinfeev and CSKA Moscow agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Matvey Kislyak 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 Aug 2026
Igor Akinfeev retires from international football
“111 caps. I have loved every one, and it is somebody else’s turn.” At 40 he has stepped away from his country and is going nowhere at CSKA Moscow.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Tamerlan Musaev
“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.
In brief
-
The dugout
Matvey Kislyak knocks on the manager's door
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
-
Market
CSKA Moscow bring in an old head