Marked for Stefan Kalinov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
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.
Match7 Dec 2026
Position 8, 12 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Dinamo Kirov's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Dinamo Kirov has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stefan Kalinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.07 on the card, and the Dinamo Kirov support went home talking about one name.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager's exit leaves Andrey Malykh exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Andrey Malykh is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Denis Zotkin was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Dinamo Kirov dressing room was either.
Match5 Dec 2026
Point won or two lost for Dinamo Kirov?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Textilschik? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces30 Nov 2026
Anger at Dinamo Kirov 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.
Market30 Nov 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Pressure builds in the Dinamo Kirov boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match28 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Dinamo Kirov's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Dinamo Kirov has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 358% of everything Dinamo Kirov 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.
Looking ahead30 Nov 2026
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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Sibir had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Squad30 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Kirov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stefan Kalinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Nov 2026
10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Dinamo Kirov are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match7 Nov 2026
Maxim Lauk scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Alania, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Evgeny Ignatovich 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Denis Zotkin to a room that had heard them before.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Dinamo Kirov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Kalinov 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Timur Bulatsev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Tyumen, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrey Savin, and the manager let it.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Stefan Kalinov 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexandr Stepanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Dinamo Kirov man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Bilal Bilalov was the best thing in any of them.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Ivan Veselkov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Kirov 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.
Market26 Oct 2026
The Maxim Lauk talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Kirov know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match17 Oct 2026
8 matches without a win, and then this, against Veles. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Match17 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bilal Bilalov. 3‑2 against Veles, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Nikita Dorofeev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stefan Kalinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑2, already talking about the next one.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Nobody at Dinamo Kirov 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Dinamo Kirov have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces5 Oct 2026
Anger at Dinamo Kirov 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Kirov can pretend not to have heard.
Match3 Oct 2026
8 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 482% of the Dinamo Kirov 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Kirov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Oct 2026
Half the programme played, position 10, 7 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Squad5 Oct 2026
14 new faces, and Dinamo Kirov are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stefan Kalinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Sep 2026
Position 8, 5 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Dinamo Kirov's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Dinamo Kirov has to find a result from somewhere.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Kirov can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Dinamo Kirov close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 11 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Stefan Kalinov 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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 dugout14 Sep 2026
“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
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Dinamo Kirov are still strangers to each other
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Dinamo Kirov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Kalinov 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ismail Dibirov slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ismail Dibirov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Andrey Malykh
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Andrey Malykh has come out of that comparison in the side, and Dinamo Kirov have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Kirov, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Sibir next, and one man in the Dinamo Kirov dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market7 Sep 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Kirov know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
The stands have heard the Andrey Malykh talk too
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Dinamo Kirov would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Volna waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Kirov is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match19 Aug 2026
The small margins put Dinamo Kirov out
Out, 1‑2 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match22 Aug 2026
2‑3 to Alania, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikolay Kamaev, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 8.09 — 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Roman Polkovnikov 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Denis Zotkin after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.