76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Metallurg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metallurg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikhail Chumak will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Metallurg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metallurg can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody at Metallurg saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The name of Artyom Lavrov has come up in conversations Metallurg were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metallurg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metallurg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.26 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Everything agreed with Dinamo Makhachkala, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Metallurg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Dmitry Savin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jan 2033
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Davydov 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Spartak Tambov.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Pavel Gritsun
The words a physio says slowly. 104 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metallurg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Jan 2033
Ivan Makarov 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.
At 17 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filippo Gorni, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Jan 2033
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Metallurg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
Player ratingsIvan Makarov beats them one at a time
125 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Metallurg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
0‑3 to Dinamo Bryansk, 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.
Dmitry Savin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Dec 2032
Ivan Makarov 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout27 Dec 2032
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 0‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutDmitry Savin knocks on the manager's door
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Nikita Borovikov
The words a physio says slowly. 132 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metallurg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.77 for the rest of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metallurg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Metallurg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad13 Dec 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Davydov 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.
Squad13 Dec 2032
A last season at home is what Davide Jozić is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Player ratings13 Dec 2032
Mikhail Chumak was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metallurg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Dmitry Savin 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 Makarov 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Metallurg, another week without a signature from Butta Magomedov.
The dugout6 Dec 2032
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 1‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Metallurg 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.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislav Davydov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniil Bortsov. 2‑0 against Kvant, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings29 Nov 2032
Daniil Bortsov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metallurg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.32 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7.51, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Metallurg and Rodina 2 in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
He is 23 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jorge Barrios will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Metallurg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dmitry Savin 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.
Squad15 Nov 2032
Ivan Makarov 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 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Metallurg, another week without a signature from Mikhail Chumak.
Something was said to Artyom Lavrov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Artyom Lavrov is on it.
“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 Metallurg, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mikhail Chumak provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Artyom Lavrov did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.55 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
7.67, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metallurg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metallurg can pretend not to have heard.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mikhail Chumak has agreed terms with Kosmos for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad25 Oct 2032
Ivan Makarov 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.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metallurg 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 Metallurg, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Metallurg are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Nobody at Metallurg 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.
“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 Metallurg, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mikhail Chumak provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Dmitry Savin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Davydov 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.
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.
9 combined actions and 7.05. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” John Mengi has his answer from Metallurg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Dmitry Savin 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.
Metallurg asked and Spartak 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislav Davydov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Maxim Yefremov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Metallurg were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metallurg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom13 Sep 2032
Metallurg close the window on a squad of their own making
17 in and 20 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jorge Barrios has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Dmitry Savin 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.
Metallurg asked and Irkutsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Makarov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Metallurg were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Metallurg had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Volna, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Davydov 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vahe Zakaryan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Metallurg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metallurg can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Volgar have kept their man, and Metallurg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Jul 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Davydov 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.
Metallurg have made the call to Dinamo Barnaul. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Dmitriy Trofimov is in the works
“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 Metallurg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dmitry Savin 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.
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.
That is the business done at Metallurg 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Metallurg go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
6 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.