Marked for Karl Kiidron
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jun 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Volgar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words exchanged at Volgar
Kirill Kolesnichenko 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ilja Zuev and Volgar agree another 2 years.
Market5 Jun 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kirill Volkov signs something — a contract at Volgar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market5 Jun 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Volgar, another week without a signature from Arseny Lavrentjev.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Arseny Lavrentjev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
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 Yury Petrovskiy is on it.
Market5 Jun 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Danil Goryaev may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 May 2028
Daniil Grada has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Volgar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Volgar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Proshkin 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 dugout22 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Daniil Grada
“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.
Market22 May 2028
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Volgar money.
The dugout22 May 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Apr 2028
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Volgar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market24 Apr 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Volgar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“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.
Market24 Apr 2028
The clock does Daniil Grada’s negotiating for him
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Volgar could ask drops and the wages Daniil Grada can ask rise.
Market24 Apr 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yegor Proshkin signs something — a contract at Volgar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vsevolod Buradjiev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
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.
Market24 Apr 2028
Volgar have made Karl Kiidron available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Feb 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Volgar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market21 Feb 2028
Oleg Dmitriev 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 Volgar can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
Everything agreed with Zenit Penza, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Volgar
Kirill Kolesnichenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
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.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
A loan move for Denis Terekhov is in the works
Volgar have made the call to Spartak Kostroma. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Pavel Golubkov
“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.
Market21 Feb 2028
The name of Yegor Proshkin keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Volgar say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Volgar will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Sep 2027
Oleg Dmitriev damages knee ligaments — 72 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match20 Sep 2027
Volgar up to position 3
16 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market20 Sep 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Volgar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A move Karl Kiidron would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Karl Kiidron is living that version at Volgar, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets20 Sep 2027
Volgar asked and Torpedo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match18 Sep 2027
Three points for Volgar, 1‑0 the final word against Kuban in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniil Grada, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Player ratings
One of those days for Abdullo Djebov
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Match
Halfway: Volgar sit in position 3
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Squad
12 new faces, and Volgar are still learning each other