Marked for Timur Bulatsev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Dinamo Kirov, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Andrey 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Lauk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Wages swallow 145% 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.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
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.
Market25 Jan 2027
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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Dinamo Kirov have made Bilal Akhjadov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market25 Jan 2027
“He needs to be playing at a level that matches him, and we are open to conversations.” Nobody says that by accident, and nobody at Dinamo Kirov misheard it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Jan 2027
“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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexandr Mironov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Kirov the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Maxim Lauk 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Vladimir Zadiraka 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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Andrey Savin asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Market11 Jan 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikita Dorofeev signs something — a contract at Dinamo Kirov or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The training reports on Timur Bulatsev are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market2 Nov 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Leningradets left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 331% 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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 2‑4 Fedor Yefremov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Evgeny Ignatovich will call it something else in private.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 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.
Market21 Sep 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Kirov they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Alexandr Stepanov 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Volgar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Philippov, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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 0‑1 Fedor Yefremov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Evgeny Pesikov is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A mark of 4.74 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Nobody at Dinamo Kirov is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Aug 2026
7 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.
Market10 Aug 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Khimik have kept their man, and Dinamo Kirov go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Vladimir Zadiraka 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Eduard Kovalev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Georgy Laptev 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vladislav Korolev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout10 Aug 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Tyumen left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
In brief
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Squad
Dinamo Kirov are still strangers to each other
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
Nikita Dorofeev beats them one at a time