Marked for David Bekoev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Jul 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikolay Kuralenya will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SKA Khabarovsk 2 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Alexandr Mukhin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Jul 2030
55 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad1 Jul 2030
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and SKA Khabarovsk 2 will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Market1 Jul 2030
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Valentin Cenatiempo has his answer from SKA Khabarovsk 2; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market1 Jul 2030
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs SKA Khabarovsk 2 money.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Jun 2030
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mashuk waiting with a shirt. Nobody at SKA Khabarovsk 2 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market24 Jun 2030
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs SKA Khabarovsk 2 money.
The dugout24 Jun 2030
David Bekoev 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 SKA Khabarovsk 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 May 2030
Position 13, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad13 May 2030
Alexandr Mukhin 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 May 2030
David Bekoev 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 SKA Khabarovsk 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 May 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SKA Khabarovsk 2 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout6 May 2030
David Bekoev 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.
Market6 May 2030
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs SKA Khabarovsk 2 money.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Apr 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Wessel Brugmans will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SKA Khabarovsk 2 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market8 Apr 2030
“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 SKA Khabarovsk 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Alexandr Mukhin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Apr 2030
“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 SKA Khabarovsk 2 will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
Alexandr Mukhin 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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and SKA Khabarovsk 2 will feel it on Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Mar 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SKA Khabarovsk 2 can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Alexandr Mukhin 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 dugout25 Mar 2030
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
David Bekoev 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 SKA Khabarovsk 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market25 Mar 2030
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what SKA Khabarovsk 2 could get for him.
Market25 Mar 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SKA Khabarovsk 2 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match18 Mar 2030
Position 13, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market18 Mar 2030
“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 SKA Khabarovsk 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
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.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
David Bekoev 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 David Bekoev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market18 Mar 2030
The Ovik Galayan story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ovik Galayan signs something — a contract at SKA Khabarovsk 2 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market18 Mar 2030
5 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what SKA Khabarovsk 2 could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Mar 2030
Ovik Galayan hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SKA Khabarovsk 2 can pretend not to have heard.
Match2 Mar 2030
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around SKA Khabarovsk 2 are no longer polite ones.
The terraces4 Mar 2030
At 23 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.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
“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.
Player ratings4 Mar 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Appearance number 100 for David Bekoev
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.
Match2 Mar 2030
A 1‑1 draw with Rodina 2 leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings4 Mar 2030
Shots: 5. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Market4 Mar 2030
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what SKA Khabarovsk 2 could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Feb 2030
9 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.
Market4 Feb 2030
“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.
Player ratings4 Feb 2030
Two goals and a mark of 8.93 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Alexandr Mukhin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match2 Feb 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ovik Galayan. 2‑1 against Rotor 2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings4 Feb 2030
Chances created: 13. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Player ratings4 Feb 2030
12 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Stanislav Kupeev has moved up it.
The dugout4 Feb 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Rebrov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Jan 2030
1‑7 against Spartak Tambov, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market28 Jan 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SKA Khabarovsk 2 can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Jan 2030
The name of Yaroslav Grebenkin has come up in conversations SKA Khabarovsk 2 were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match26 Jan 2030
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between SKA Khabarovsk 2 and Spartak Tambov, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The dugout28 Jan 2030
The manager makes an example of Alexandr Mukhin
“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.
Looking ahead28 Jan 2030
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
Player ratings28 Jan 2030
Ovik Galayan beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Jan 2030
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.
Player ratings28 Jan 2030
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Dec 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 SKA Khabarovsk 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match8 Dec 2029
0‑1 to Zenit Penza, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Rebrov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
David Bekoev 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 David Bekoev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market10 Dec 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Yaroslav Grebenkin’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market10 Dec 2029
6 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what SKA Khabarovsk 2 could get for him.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
The pass was always on for Nikita Dolin
Chances created: 6. Somebody has to open a door before anybody can walk through it, and he spent the afternoon opening doors.
Squad10 Dec 2029
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at SKA Khabarovsk 2 was different afterwards.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Nov 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 SKA Khabarovsk 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad19 Nov 2029
The division's best last weekend was a SKA Khabarovsk 2 man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Ovik Galayan was the best thing in any of them.
Market19 Nov 2029
The Ovik Galayan talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SKA Khabarovsk 2 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Looking ahead19 Nov 2029
Looking ahead: the trip to Kvant
Position 10 for the hosts, a long journey for the away end, and a fixture that will look ordinary on paper right up until it is not.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Ovik Galayan named in the team of the week
A rating of 6.67 was enough for the selectors, and nobody who watched the match is going to argue with them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Oct 2029
14 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.
Match20 Oct 2029
0‑5 to Orel, 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.
Market22 Oct 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.
Match20 Oct 2029
Two or more conceded in each of the last 9 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Player ratings22 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. 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 dugout22 Oct 2029
The manager makes an example of David Bekoev
“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.
Boardroom22 Oct 2029
Nobody left the SKA Khabarovsk 2 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 dugout22 Oct 2029
German Parfenov 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.
Player ratings22 Oct 2029
6 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Sep 2029
The run now stands at 29, and the questions being asked around SKA Khabarovsk 2 are no longer polite ones.
Match29 Sep 2029
A 0‑8 beating by Spartak Tambov was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match1 Oct 2029
Position 15, 1 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match29 Sep 2029
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The terraces1 Oct 2029
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 3 of the 11 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Match29 Sep 2029
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between SKA Khabarovsk 2 and Spartak Tambov, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The dugout1 Oct 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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and SKA Khabarovsk 2 will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.