10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Daniil Lesovoy 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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod has been clear about where Ivan Kukushkin stands, which is more than many ever get.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgardo Fariña 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.
“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 Pari Nizhniy Novgorod, and 7 appearances in 39 say he has earned the hearing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod 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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Roman Osin leaves Pari Nizhniy Novgorod the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgardo Fariña 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Anton Mukhin and Pari Nizhniy Novgorod agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgardo Fariña 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nikita Kakkoev 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.
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.
“I did not go to Akhmat Grozny to sit and watch. I want to come back to Pari Nizhniy Novgorod and fight for my place.” 14 appearances in 42 matches say the rest.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikita Kakkoev signs something — a contract at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pari Nizhniy Novgorod will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Pari Nizhniy Novgorod will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgardo Fariña 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.
18 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“I watch every Pari Nizhniy Novgorod game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Akhmat Grozny runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Adrián Balboa 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.
“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 Pari Nizhniy Novgorod, and 5 appearances in 24 say he has earned the hearing.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I did not go to Akhmat Grozny to sit and watch. I want to come back to Pari Nizhniy Novgorod and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 20 matches say the rest.
2‑2 against Dinamo St Petersburg, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Adrián Balboa 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.
“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 Pari Nizhniy Novgorod, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andrey Ivlev and Pari Nizhniy Novgorod agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.27. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod.
“I did not go to Akhmat Grozny to sit and watch. I want to come back to Pari Nizhniy Novgorod and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 12 matches say the rest.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Akhmat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Miroslav Bogosavac 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Igor Diveev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohamed Konaté. 2‑0 against Arsenal Tula, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.
Daniil Lesovoy 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Timoshenko 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.
The name of Yaroslav Krashevskiy has come up in conversations Pari Nizhniy Novgorod were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I watch every Pari Nizhniy Novgorod game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Akhmat Grozny runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ousmane Ndong was one of the reasons people came, and $2.8M does not replace that by itself.
CSKA Moscow paid $2.8M and Akhmat took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Ismael 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Akhmed Davlitgereev is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pari Nizhniy Novgorod lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Daniil Lesovoy 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.
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nikolay Kalinskiy has his answer from Pari Nizhniy Novgorod; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pari Nizhniy Novgorod told Sven Karič something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pari Nizhniy Novgorod know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olakunle Olusegun 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.
Daniil Lesovoy 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgardo Fariña 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.
Adrián Balboa 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.
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.
18 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod has to find a result from somewhere.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pari Nizhniy Novgorod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akron can pretend not to have heard.
Kristijan Bistrović 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vadim Rassadin is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
12 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pari Nizhniy Novgorod have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Akron have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akron this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Kristijan Bistrović 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khetag Khosonov 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Marked 5.60. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
The words a physio says slowly. 82 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.
“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 Pari Nizhniy Novgorod, and it is not being withdrawn.
Adrián Balboa 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.
Roberto Fernández 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.
0‑1 to Krylya Sovetov, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Paulo Vitor 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“I watch every Akron game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rubin runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Marked 4.71. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.