Marked for Alexandr Grigorjev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Oct 2029
Anger at Zenit Penza spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 13 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match29 Sep 2029
0‑3 to Dinamo Bryansk, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match1 Oct 2029
8 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom1 Oct 2029
Pressure builds in the Zenit Penza boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match29 Sep 2029
No end in sight to Zenit Penza's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zenit Penza has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Ramil Kalmurzin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom1 Oct 2029
128% of the income goes out in wages at Zenit Penza
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
“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.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Zenit Penza dressing room in a hurry
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Market
Dmitri Nikitin told to find a new club
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market17 Sep 2029
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Alexandr Grigorjev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
A performance of 8.28 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Nil Shapovalov 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.
Boardroom17 Sep 2029
The borrowing at Zenit Penza reaches $4.0M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $4.0M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
“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.
Match15 Sep 2029
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Sep 2029
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom10 Sep 2029
Window shuts: 9 in, 9 out at Zenit Penza
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Match8 Sep 2029
Salyut left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
“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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Vladimir Belov 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 dugout10 Sep 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Aug 2029
Beaten 1‑4 by Ryazan, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market27 Aug 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
“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.
Market27 Aug 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikhail Emelyanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zenit Penza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets27 Aug 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Luki-Energiya have kept their man, and Zenit Penza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
No signings allowed at Zenit Penza
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
“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.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
Nobody left the Zenit Penza 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2029
Pobeda ended it 0‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The terraces20 Aug 2029
Zenit Penza are taken apart by Pobeda — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market20 Aug 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tyumen have kept their man, and Zenit Penza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom20 Aug 2029
The Zenit Penza debt reaches $3.9M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Christian Comandini 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.
Boardroom20 Aug 2029
Nobody left the Zenit Penza 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.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Aug 2029
It had gone 18 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad13 Aug 2029
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match11 Aug 2029
Metallurg made Zenit Penza work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Evgeni Tokarev 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 ratings13 Aug 2029
Alexey Shulgin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. 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.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
Tyumen 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.
Market13 Aug 2029
A stepping stone, not a home, for Ramil Kalmurzin
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Zenit Penza were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Jul 2029
17 matches without a win for Zenit Penza
The run now stands at 17, and the questions being asked around Zenit Penza are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market30 Jul 2029
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match28 Jul 2029
6 matches without a goal for Zenit Penza
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market30 Jul 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zenit Penza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
Half-satisfied: Interim Coach on the draw
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Jul 2029
16 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match21 Jul 2029
The goals have deserted Zenit Penza
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Zenit Penza can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Christian Comandini is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
Zenit Penza still without a manager
8 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Match21 Jul 2029
No clean sheets in sight for Zenit Penza
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Match21 Jul 2029
Spartak Tambov left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings23 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad23 Jul 2029
At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces9 Jul 2029
Anger at Zenit Penza spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom9 Jul 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Zenit Penza
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market9 Jul 2029
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Alexandr Grigorjev 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 dugout9 Jul 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Volna have kept their man, and Zenit Penza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom9 Jul 2029
Wages eat 128% of everything Zenit Penza 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 dugout9 Jul 2029
The manager makes an example of Tukhan Akhilgov
“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 dugout9 Jul 2029
Alexandr Ageev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zenit Penza 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Jun 2029
11 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Viktor Mikhaylov 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.
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad25 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market25 Jun 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zenit Penza, another week without a signature from Tukhan Akhilgov.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
Daniil Makhnach asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout18 Jun 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viktor Mikhaylov 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
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.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
The manager makes an example of Tikhon Zimin
“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 dugout18 Jun 2029
Evgeni Tokarev 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 Zenit Penza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces11 Jun 2029
Supporters organise against the Zenit Penza 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.
Boardroom11 Jun 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Zenit Penza
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zenit Penza is running low.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Alexandr Grigorjev 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 dugout11 Jun 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Boardroom11 Jun 2029
111% of the income goes out in wages at Zenit Penza
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
Alexandr Ageev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zenit Penza 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 dugout11 Jun 2029
Evgeni Tokarev asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market11 Jun 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zenit Penza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market11 Jun 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Daniil Makhnach may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 May 2029
A muscle injury sidelines Danil Batyrshin for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Zenit Penza will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout21 May 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad21 May 2029
Alexandr Grigorjev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 May 2029
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.
Market21 May 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alexey Shulgin’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout21 May 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Christian Comandini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces14 May 2029
Supporters organise against the Zenit Penza 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.
Boardroom14 May 2029
Pressure builds in the Zenit Penza boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The dugout14 May 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad14 May 2029
Kirill Pluzhnikov 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.
The dugout14 May 2029
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.
Market14 May 2029
The name of Alexandr Ageev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Zenit Penza say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout23 Apr 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad23 Apr 2029
Alexandr Grigorjev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Nobody at Zenit Penza 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 dugout23 Apr 2029
Evgeni Tokarev 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 Zenit Penza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market23 Apr 2029
The name of Daniil Makhnach keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Zenit Penza say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad23 Apr 2029
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Apr 2029
11 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Alexandr Grigorjev 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.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The Zenit Penza debt reaches $3.4M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
The manager's exit leaves Danil Batyrshin exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Danil Batyrshin is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Market2 Apr 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zenit Penza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad2 Apr 2029
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Zenit Penza says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Mar 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zenit Penza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad26 Mar 2029
Kirill Pluzhnikov 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 dugout26 Mar 2029
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.
Market26 Mar 2029
The name of Daniil Makhnach keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Zenit Penza say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zenit Penza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Mar 2029
Every point is an argument now for Zenit Penza
Position 14 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
Yegor Dzyuba has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zenit Penza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Wojciech Szafranek and Zenit Penza agree another 4 years.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Alexandr Grigorjev 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.
Transfer targets5 Mar 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nizhniy Novgorod have kept their man, and Zenit Penza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Kirill Pluzhnikov 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 dugout5 Mar 2029
Alexey Shulgin without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Alexey Shulgin was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Market5 Mar 2029
“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.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
Evgeni Tokarev asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Feb 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market26 Feb 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Zenit Penza people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Zenit Penza close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
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Transfer targets26 Feb 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Salyut have kept their man, and Zenit Penza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Feb 2029
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Pluzhnikov 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
Nobody at Zenit Penza 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout12 Feb 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market12 Feb 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zenit Penza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Alexandr Grigorjev 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.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2029
Zenit Penza asked and Nizhniy Novgorod said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danil Batyrshin, and the manager let it.
Market12 Feb 2029
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Viktor Mikhaylov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
Wages eat 105% of everything Zenit Penza 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Zenit Penza will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Feb 2029
15 matches without a win for Zenit Penza
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Zenit Penza are no longer polite ones.
Match5 Feb 2029
11 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match3 Feb 2029
0‑6 to Znamya Truda, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad5 Feb 2029
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Veles keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match3 Feb 2029
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match3 Feb 2029
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zenit Penza and Znamya Truda in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Jan 2029
No end in sight to Zenit Penza's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zenit Penza has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Wojciech Szafranek damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Match27 Jan 2029
0‑3 against Strogino, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market29 Jan 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
The deal with Veles is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
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Match27 Jan 2029
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Grigorjev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Jan 2029
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zenit Penza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match13 Jan 2029
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.
Market15 Jan 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zenit Penza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
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Market15 Jan 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikhail Emelyanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zenit Penza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Alexandr Grigorjev 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 ratings15 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match13 Jan 2029
Arsenal Tula 2 left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Viktor Mikhaylov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces25 Dec 2028
Supporters organise against the Zenit Penza 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zenit Penza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Zenit Penza
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zenit Penza is running low.
Match23 Dec 2028
9 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.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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Match23 Dec 2028
Rotor 2 left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Looking ahead25 Dec 2028
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Zenit Penza know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Dec 2028
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zenit Penza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match16 Dec 2028
No end in sight to Zenit Penza's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zenit Penza has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
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Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market18 Dec 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zenit Penza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Daniil Makhnach
“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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Christian Comandini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom18 Dec 2028
Wages swallow 98% of the Zenit Penza 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Dec 2028
Wojciech Szafranek damages knee ligaments — 70 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
Yegor Dzyuba has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zenit Penza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match2 Dec 2028
No end in sight to Zenit Penza's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zenit Penza has to find a result from somewhere.
Market4 Dec 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“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.
Match2 Dec 2028
No clean sheets in sight for Zenit Penza
6 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
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Match2 Dec 2028
1‑3 to Ryazan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Nov 2028
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zenit Penza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces27 Nov 2028
Supporters organise against the Zenit Penza 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.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
Pressure builds in the Zenit Penza boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad27 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
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The dugout27 Nov 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alexandr Ageev is on it.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
Zenit Penza can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“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.
Market27 Nov 2028
The name of Alexandr Ageev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Zenit Penza say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Nov 2028
84 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zenit Penza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad20 Nov 2028
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match18 Nov 2028
5 matches without a win for Zenit Penza
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Zenit Penza are no longer polite ones.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
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Market20 Nov 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikhail Emelyanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zenit Penza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match18 Nov 2028
Zenit Penza are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match18 Nov 2028
1‑3 to Metallurg, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Maksim Korotkov
“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 dugout20 Nov 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Nov 2028
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zenit Penza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 36. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match13 Nov 2028
8 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match11 Nov 2028
4 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.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
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Match11 Nov 2028
The goals have deserted Zenit Penza
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Zenit Penza can tell you which week it ends in.
Match11 Nov 2028
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match11 Nov 2028
0‑2 to Orel, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Viktor Mikhaylov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Nov 2028
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zenit Penza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad6 Nov 2028
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.
Market6 Nov 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
“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.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
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Squad6 Nov 2028
Alexandr Grigorjev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Viktor Mikhaylov 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.
In brief
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Looking ahead
Everything rides on Orel
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Zenit Penza dressing room in a hurry
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The dugout
Yegor Dzyuba answers for it
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Oct 2028
Wojciech Szafranek damages knee ligaments — 112 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 112 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
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Market23 Oct 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikhail Emelyanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zenit Penza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match21 Oct 2028
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Yegor Dzyuba to a room that had heard them before.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Timur Zainullin 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.
Boardroom23 Oct 2028
Wages swallow 92% of the Zenit Penza 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 dugout23 Oct 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Oct 2028
Wojciech Szafranek damages knee ligaments — 126 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 126 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.
Match7 Oct 2028
10 matches without a win for Zenit Penza
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Zenit Penza are no longer polite ones.
Squad9 Oct 2028
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match7 Oct 2028
1‑4 to Rodina M, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market9 Oct 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zenit Penza can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Alexandr Ageev pops up at the right end — 7.59
7.59, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
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Squad9 Oct 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexandr Ageev and Zenit Penza agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces2 Oct 2028
Anger at Zenit Penza spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match30 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Zenit Penza's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zenit Penza has to find a result from somewhere.
Match30 Sep 2028
0‑3 against Arsenal Tula 2, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Zenit Penza
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad2 Oct 2028
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match30 Sep 2028
The goals have deserted Zenit Penza
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Zenit Penza can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexandr Ageev and Zenit Penza agree another 2 years.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
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The dugout2 Oct 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match18 Sep 2028
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match16 Sep 2028
7 matches without a win for Zenit Penza
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Zenit Penza are no longer polite ones.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
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Match16 Sep 2028
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Alexandr Grigorjev 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.
Boardroom18 Sep 2028
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Market18 Sep 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad18 Sep 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Dmitri Toporov commits to Zenit Penza for another 3 years.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 terraces4 Sep 2028
The mood at Zenit Penza 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.
Match2 Sep 2028
Beaten 0‑3 by Salyut, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market4 Sep 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match2 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Zenit Penza's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zenit Penza has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
Zenit Penza asked and Sibir said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
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The dugout4 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Grigorjev, and the manager let it.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Yegor Dzyuba to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Aug 2028
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zenit Penza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match16 Aug 2028
The small margins put Zenit Penza out
Out, 0‑2 to Spartak Tambov, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
A defender's goal wins it for Zenit Penza — 7.44
1 for Alexandr Ageev, marked 7.44, 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.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
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Match19 Aug 2028
6 goals in one match, Wojciech Szafranek on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Zenit Penza and Ryazan.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Alexandr Grigorjev 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.
Match19 Aug 2028
Ryazan left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
The numbers do not look good at Zenit Penza
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces7 Aug 2028
The mood at Zenit Penza 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mikhail Abdulov
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zenit Penza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Alexandr Grigorjev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
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Squad7 Aug 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maksim Korotkov and Zenit Penza agree another 4 years.
Match5 Aug 2028
Metallurg left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Wojciech Szafranek is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Jul 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match22 Jul 2028
Beaten 0‑3 by Dinamo St Petersburg, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match22 Jul 2028
No end in sight to Zenit Penza's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zenit Penza has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Zenit Penza have done the hard part with Pobeda, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Tver is saying, and nobody at Zenit Penza is enjoying the guessing.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
The numbers do not look good at Zenit Penza
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
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Match22 Jul 2028
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Wages swallow 120% of the Zenit Penza 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.
In brief
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Squad
A falling-out at Zenit Penza
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Zenit Penza dressing room in a hurry
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Jul 2028
No end in sight to Zenit Penza's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zenit Penza has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market17 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zenit Penza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
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Boardroom17 Jul 2028
2 academy players handed senior numbers at Zenit Penza
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Zenit Penza asked and Spartak Nalchik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match15 Jul 2028
0‑2 to Spartak Tambov, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market17 Jul 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nikolai Moiseev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Jul 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mikhail Abdulov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Yegor Dzyuba has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The Zenit Penza board call everybody in
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.
Market3 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zenit Penza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
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Squad3 Jul 2028
Alexandr Grigorjev 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.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Vladivostok have kept their man, and Zenit Penza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
A loan enquiry to Uralets-TS: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
Zenit Penza sign 3 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alexandr Ageev is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikhail Emelyanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zenit Penza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market19 Jun 2028
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
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Squad19 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
Yuri Popov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zenit Penza 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Wojciech Szafranek signs something — a contract at Zenit Penza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces15 May 2028
Supporters organise against the Zenit Penza 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.
Boardroom15 May 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Zenit Penza
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zenit Penza is running low.
Squad15 May 2028
Alexandr Grigorjev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout15 May 2028
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The dugout15 May 2028
Nobody at Zenit Penza 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 dugout15 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniil Makhnach trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout15 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danil Artemov, and the manager let it.
Market15 May 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Ageev signs something — a contract at Zenit Penza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad15 May 2028
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Zenit Penza would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 May 2028
Alexandr Grigorjev 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.
Boardroom1 May 2028
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout1 May 2028
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The dugout1 May 2028
“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.
Boardroom1 May 2028
111% of the income goes out in wages at Zenit Penza
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The dugout1 May 2028
Alexey Shulgin without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Alexey Shulgin was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Squad1 May 2028
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Zenit Penza has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market1 May 2028
The name of Alexey Shulgin keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Zenit Penza say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad1 May 2028
“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 Zenit Penza will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market27 Mar 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zenit Penza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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Squad27 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Nobody at Zenit Penza 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 dugout27 Mar 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniil Makhnach trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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Squad13 Mar 2028
Alexandr Grigorjev 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.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“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.
Boardroom13 Mar 2028
Wages swallow 89% of the Zenit Penza 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 dugout13 Mar 2028
Alexandr Ageev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zenit Penza 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.
Market13 Mar 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zenit Penza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Riccardo Carrubba
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zenit Penza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market7 Feb 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Zenit Penza people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match5 Feb 2028
No end in sight to Zenit Penza's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zenit Penza has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
Vitaliy Tsyganov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zenit Penza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market7 Feb 2028
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Alexandr Grigorjev 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The numbers do not look good at Zenit Penza
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Riccardo Carrubba
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zenit Penza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces24 Jan 2028
Supporters organise against the Zenit Penza 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.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Zenit Penza
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zenit Penza is running low.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
A brace, and Wojciech Szafranek takes the afternoon — 8.79
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Wojciech Szafranek provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad24 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Jan 2028
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
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The dugout24 Jan 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Jan 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
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Boardroom10 Jan 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Zenit Penza now.
Match8 Jan 2028
0‑2 to Dinamo Bryansk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market10 Jan 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vladimir Grishin has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Jan 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Leonid Mironov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Kirill Pluzhnikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Yegor Dzyuba left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alexandr Ageev is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Yegor Dzyuba has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zenit Penza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad3 Jan 2028
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 ratings3 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
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Match1 Jan 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Wojciech Szafranek’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Zenit Penza.
Match1 Jan 2028
The drought breaks for Zenit Penza
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and SKA Khabarovsk 2 were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Kirill Pluzhnikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Wages swallow 88% of the Zenit Penza 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Dec 2027
18 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad20 Dec 2027
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
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Match18 Dec 2027
4 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
The goals have deserted Zenit Penza
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Zenit Penza can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad20 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match18 Dec 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Daniil Makhnach
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
Yegor Dzyuba has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zenit Penza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
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Squad6 Dec 2027
Denis Skrypnikov 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.
Match4 Dec 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad6 Dec 2027
The medical room confirms 28 days on the sidelines for Kirill Pluzhnikov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“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 dugout6 Dec 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
Wages eat 90% of everything Zenit Penza 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.