Marked for Artem Korneev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 May 2027
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sochi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad17 May 2027
Alexandr Soldatenkov 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 dugout17 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vyacheslav Litvinov, and the manager let it.
Loan watch17 May 2027
10 appearances away from home and 9 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout17 May 2027
A promise honoured at Sochi
Something was said to Zakhar Fedorov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout17 May 2027
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 Osipov is on it.
The dugout17 May 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sochi. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market17 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vladimir Iljin’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad17 May 2027
Marcelo Alves wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Sochi have no good answer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Sochi
Sergey Volkov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
The goals keep arriving from Saúl Guarirapa’s exile
16 goals in 10 games at Zhejiang FC — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sochi updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Alexandr Soldatenkov 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
Igor Kalinin gets it from the manager
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vyacheslav Litvinov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Igor Kalinin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sochi needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market16 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Pavel Meleshin signs something — a contract at Sochi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A wage question at Sochi
Alexandr Osipov has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vyacheslav Litvinov, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Krasnodar in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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 Sochi would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Alexandr Degtev has written the date down.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Pavel Meleshin’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad12 Oct 2026
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Sochi the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Market12 Oct 2026
Krasnodar had somebody in the stand with a notebook, and he was not there for the pies. Watching is free; the next step is not.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Sochi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Soldatenkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Baltika have kept their man, and Sochi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Sochi 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Artem Korneev has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The dugout7 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.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Krylya Sovetov in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Ruslan Bart 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 Sochi, and both men came out saying it was fine.