Marked for Danila Godyaev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 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 Sokol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Sokol is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
A promise honoured at Sokol
Something was said to Danila Godyaev and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Sokol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Mukhin 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“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; Sokol are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Experience through the door at Sokol
Diego Pascutini arrives at 35 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Market12 Oct 2026
At 39, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Sep 2026
Sokol march on in the cup
Dinamo Vologda are out and Sokol go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Vladislav Kostin at 20 — 7.83
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vladislav Kostin did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Sokol
Roman Pasevich and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 299% of the Sokol income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match3 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Sokol against KAMAZ
0‑1 to KAMAZ, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksandr Garin after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Sokol
Nikita Pechenkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Artem Bykov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Mark Isong gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Sokol
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislav Kostin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Spartak Kostroma will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
Timur Kraikov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sokol can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Sokol
Philipp Hoffmann and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Vladimir Azarov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Market7 Sep 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Sokol will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Sokol than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Sokol will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Chelyabinsk in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market7 Sep 2026
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Andrés Salazar is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
Lucas Vera hands in a written request
“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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fenerbahce have kept their man, and Lokomotiv Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
An offer of $3.0M for José Gayà
Lokomotiv Moscow have gone to Valencia 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 targets3 Aug 2026
Lokomotiv Moscow have gone to Qarabag 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Andijon for Sergey Babkin was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Lokomotiv Moscow — 7.31
1 for Danila Godyaev, marked 7.31, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad3 Aug 2026
César Montes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Aug 2026
Fasson 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nikita Pechenkin and Sokol agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Sokol
Nikita Pechenkin 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Sokol 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 dugout3 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksandr Garin after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Daniil Martovoy is in the works
Sokol have made the call to Shinnik. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Dinamo Makhachkala have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.