Marked for Maxim Shnaptsev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 Jun 2033
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Moscow 2 have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market20 Jun 2033
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Moscow 2 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market20 Jun 2033
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Moscow 2 can pretend not to have heard.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout25 Apr 2033
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maxim Shnaptsev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad25 Apr 2033
Nino is the talk of the training ground
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Mar 2033
Ivan Lepskiy has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Moscow 2 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Mar 2033
Nüraly Älip 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.
Match12 Mar 2033
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kirill Simonov. 2‑0 against Torpedo Moscow, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Mar 2033
Kirill Simonov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
Market14 Mar 2033
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad14 Mar 2033
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Dinamo Moscow 2 will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Player ratings14 Mar 2033
Shots: 8, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
The dugout14 Mar 2033
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maxim Shnaptsev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead14 Mar 2033
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Fakel in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
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The dugout
Nino wants a proper job in this side
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Player ratings
A defender's afternoon for Ivan Lepskiy
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Squad
The room hears from Nino
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Feb 2033
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match26 Feb 2033
0‑5 against Rubin 2, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market28 Feb 2033
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sokol had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The terraces28 Feb 2033
The stands have turned
“Enough is enough. We have watched this for months.” 3 of the 10 senior players walked off to it, and the message was not aimed at any one of them.
Squad28 Feb 2033
Nüraly Älip 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 Dinamo Moscow 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout28 Feb 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aleksandar Jukić, and the manager let it.
Boardroom28 Feb 2033
Nobody left the Dinamo Moscow 2 dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad28 Feb 2033
Yakov Ulyanov 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 dugout28 Feb 2033
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Feb 2033
69 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Match19 Feb 2033
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Shinnik had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Dinamo Moscow 2 did not stop to explain themselves.
Market21 Feb 2033
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match19 Feb 2033
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad21 Feb 2033
Nino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market21 Feb 2033
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Dinamo Moscow 2 have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match19 Feb 2033
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nikolay Ischenko. 1‑0 against Shinnik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings21 Feb 2033
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.87 on the card, and the Dinamo Moscow 2 support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings21 Feb 2033
Defensive actions: 14, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces2 Feb 2032
Supporters organise against the Baltika board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Baltika can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market2 Feb 2032
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Baltika have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market2 Feb 2032
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market2 Feb 2032
“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 Baltika, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets2 Feb 2032
$1.6M settles it between the clubs for Alexandr Pomalyuk
Nizhniy Novgorod have accepted the money. What Baltika do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Gašper Černe gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gašper Černe has just signed for Baltika, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets2 Feb 2032
Baltika have gone to Spartak Kostroma 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.
Squad2 Feb 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom26 Jan 2032
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Baltika
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market26 Jan 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Baltika can pretend not to have heard.
Match26 Jan 2032
Baltika sink to position 14
20 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market26 Jan 2032
Only the photograph left for Matúš Holíček
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matúš Holíček will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Baltika the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market26 Jan 2032
Ural come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Baltika did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad26 Jan 2032
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market26 Jan 2032
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Baltika have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad26 Jan 2032
Nikita Saltykov 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 ratings26 Jan 2032
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces5 Jan 2032
The mood at Baltika 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.
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Jan 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Baltika is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market5 Jan 2032
“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 Baltika, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
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.
Squad5 Jan 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Jan 2032
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Match3 Jan 2032
Three points for Baltika, 3‑2 the final word against Krasnodar in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad5 Jan 2032
A row about effort at Baltika
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simón Bodnar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Frenkie Promes has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Jan 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiv Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad5 Jan 2032
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. Lokomotiv Moscow will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Player ratings5 Jan 2032
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.47 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market5 Jan 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Jan 2032
Tamerlan Musaev 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.
Match3 Jan 2032
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Dec 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Baltika is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match13 Dec 2031
4 matches without a win for Baltika
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Baltika are no longer polite ones.
Squad15 Dec 2031
A falling-out at Baltika
Fahd Moufi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match13 Dec 2031
Simón Bodnar among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Simón Bodnar on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Baltika and Dinamo Moscow.
Squad15 Dec 2031
Nikita Saltykov 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 Dec 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Shnaptsev, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Dec 2031
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout15 Dec 2031
Artemy Gunko knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Baltika, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Nov 2031
22 days out for Matúš Holíček after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Baltika will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout10 Nov 2031
“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.
Market10 Nov 2031
Frode Aronsson has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Baltika they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match8 Nov 2031
5 matches without a win for Baltika
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Baltika are no longer polite ones.
Squad10 Nov 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Nov 2031
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Saltykov 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.
Match8 Nov 2031
Slobodan Tedić scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Zenit, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad10 Nov 2031
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout10 Nov 2031
“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.