“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sevastopol have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Artem Stepanovich was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sevastopol, another week without a signature from Maxim Isaev.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sevastopol is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Ivan Alferov 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sevastopol, and 6 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sevastopol is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Sevastopol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Redvan Osmanov 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.
Marked 8.69 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
5 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sevastopol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Sevastopol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Redvan Osmanov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sevastopol, and 6 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Sevastopol 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sevastopol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nikita Fadeev 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.
8.95. 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Bekkhan Aliev 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.
Legion held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Sevastopol answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Amet Dugu 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.
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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Sevastopol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Redvan Osmanov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Maxim Isaev has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.21 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sevastopol is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Sevastopol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Redvan Osmanov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Sevastopol game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kosmos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Sochi 2? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. German Gromov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sevastopol the goodbyes have quietly begun.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Sevastopol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yury Yakunin 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.
Nobody at Sevastopol 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.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Sevastopol could ask drops and the wages Lev Potapov can ask rise.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Sevastopol have had the benefit of it.
Amet Dugu 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Sevastopol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Isaev 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.
Nobody at Sevastopol 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.
Levan Chakvetadze is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
Artem Stepanovich was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vladislav Kucheiko, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Maxim Isaev 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.