The Sokol Post
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Anton Mukhin keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sokol may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market19 Apr 2027
Vladislav Kostin has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sokol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Sokol
Nawaf Al-Zaaqi 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Roman Pasevich 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.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
Wages eat 94% of everything Sokol 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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Oswaldo Henríquez
“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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Jonathan Rodríguez 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 Jonathan Rodríguez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market19 Apr 2027
The Aleksej Golijanin story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aleksej Golijanin signs something — a contract at Sokol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Damián Kotrba has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Damián Kotrba has written the date down.
In brief
- Market The shop window has Amir Kahrimanović in it
- Squad Chris Essim takes up the language