Marked for Amit Harel
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Nikolay Rybikov out for 72 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo St Petersburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market15 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Shepelev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo St Petersburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Vladislav Shepelev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Masalov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to SKA Khabarovsk: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to Neftekhimik: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladislav Shepelev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amit Harel, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
114 days out for Nikolay Rybikov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo St Petersburg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Omar Popov beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Vladislav Shepelev 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 ratings4 Jan 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.36 on the card, and the Dinamo St Petersburg support went home talking about one name.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Dmitry Borodin
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Leonid Gorshkov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dinamo St Petersburg, another week without a signature from Roman Torosyan.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Omar Popov runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Vladislav Shepelev 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Oleksandr Masalov 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo St Petersburg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Marked 7.20. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Kuroshev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Market21 Dec 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo St Petersburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Oleksandr Masalov 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 terraces21 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Roman Torosyan 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Marked 8.10 — 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Leonid Gorshkov kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Ilja Kubyshkin 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Dinamo St Petersburg lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 63. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Rizvan Umarov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Dinamo St Petersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Masalov 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Amit Harel
“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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Leonid Gorshkov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Dinamo St Petersburg dressing room was either.
Match28 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Zenit Penza will be the happier side with the point.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Oleksandr Masalov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dinamo St Petersburg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Kuroshev, and the manager let it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Leonid Gorshkov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Dinamo St Petersburg dressing room was either.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Ilja Kubyshkin knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilja Kubyshkin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad2 Nov 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Match31 Oct 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Ryazan defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 52. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Alexey Baev, 33, rolls back the years — 7.99
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dinamo St Petersburg have 3 straight wins of it.
Market31 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo St Petersburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Rizvan Umarov 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 targets31 Aug 2026
Dinamo St Petersburg asked and Chaika 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Kuroshev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Raz Nahmias commits to Bnei Yehuda for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bnei Yehuda can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tamir Berman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Stav Nachmani’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jonathan Agyapong 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 Aug 2026
Persib 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Kano Pillars: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Tamir Berman knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tamir Berman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.