Eldar Bliev 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.
KDV Tomsk asked and Krasnodar 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 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 name of Viktor Mikheev has come up in conversations KDV Tomsk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Sergei Belousov left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and KDV Tomsk know it.
0‑3 to Kaluga, 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.
The deal with SKA Khabarovsk is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Eldar Bliev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mashuk have kept their man, and KDV Tomsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at KDV Tomsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Selemenev 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.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KDV Tomsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 KDV Tomsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
An order from above at KDV Tomsk: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KDV Tomsk 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.
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.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KDV Tomsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KDV Tomsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
KDV Tomsk asked and Dinamo Bryansk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at KDV Tomsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Selemenev 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 manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Sergei Belousov left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Artem Yapryntsev is in the works
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KDV Tomsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 KDV Tomsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Eldar Bliev 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.
KDV Tomsk have made the call to Dinamo Bryansk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
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 Maxim Palienko is on it.
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KDV Tomsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KDV Tomsk can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. KDV Tomsk have done the hard part with Druzhba, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KDV Tomsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Bryansk have kept their man, and KDV Tomsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Simdyankin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KDV Tomsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KDV Tomsk can pretend not to have heard.
Nikita Simdyankin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Selemenev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KDV Tomsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
88 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KDV Tomsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 KDV Tomsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Simdyankin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KDV Tomsk, another week without a signature from Tomáš Pipíška.
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KDV Tomsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 KDV Tomsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Selemenev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KDV Tomsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KDV Tomsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikita Simdyankin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Selemenev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Ivan Selemenev was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Palienko signs something — a contract at KDV Tomsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 123 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.
“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 KDV Tomsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nikita Simdyankin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hussain Mahmood was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KDV Tomsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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 KDV Tomsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Selemenev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Eldar Bliev 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.
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.
Nobody at KDV Tomsk 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.
Nikita Simdyankin 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 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Palienko signs something — a contract at KDV Tomsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at KDV Tomsk is running low.
Hussain Mahmood 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Simdyankin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikita Simdyankin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. KDV Tomsk told Koji Haraguchi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hussain Mahmood will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KDV Tomsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Selemenev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Eldar Bliev 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KDV Tomsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at KDV Tomsk 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KDV Tomsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Tomáš Pipíška 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.
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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikita Simdyankin signs something — a contract at KDV Tomsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nikita Simdyankin and KDV Tomsk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chaika have kept their man, and KDV Tomsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at KDV Tomsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Selemenev 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 KDV Tomsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Georgy Terekhov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Lev Mamonov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KDV Tomsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at KDV Tomsk until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KDV Tomsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
KDV Tomsk asked and Yenisey said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at KDV Tomsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Selemenev 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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Vsevolod Buradjiev decided nobody was going anywhere. Chelyabinsk 2 had no time left to answer.
Two goals and a mark of 8.75 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KDV Tomsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Chelyabinsk 2 were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Everything agreed with Leningradets, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KDV Tomsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KDV Tomsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 KDV Tomsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Tomáš Pipíška 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Selemenev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eldar Bliev, and the manager let it.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Sergei Belousov to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Rauno Ainsalu
The dugoutTomáš Pipíška knocks on the manager’s door
The dugoutRauno Ainsalu dropped after a run of poor form
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and KDV Tomsk know it.
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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Arda Türken 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.
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 Tomáš Pipíška is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tomáš Pipíška trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Orenburg 2 in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KDV Tomsk can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Selemenev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for KDV Tomsk is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KDV Tomsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at KDV Tomsk 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.
Position 12 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KDV Tomsk can pretend not to have heard.
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.
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.
Eldar Bliev 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hussain Mahmood will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KDV Tomsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Two goals and a mark of 7.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 6.98, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at KDV Tomsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Selemenev 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.
“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 KDV Tomsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
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.
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.
Eldar Bliev 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KDV Tomsk can pretend not to have heard.
Nikita Simdyankin 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arda Türken was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Rauno Ainsalu is 16, and KDV Tomsk have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KDV Tomsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
$15.0K was the most the club would pay and Orenburg were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.