Alexandr Mukhin 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 Vladimir Tsapurin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Ryazan next, and one man in the SKA Khabarovsk 2 dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SKA Khabarovsk 2 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SKA Khabarovsk 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kirill Mordasov is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Tsapurin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Stanislav Kupeev's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Alexandr Mukhin 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.
Half the programme played, position 9, 17 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Alexandr Yermakov to a room that had heard them before.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one SKA Khabarovsk 2 will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Demjan Iljev
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Demjan Iljev has come out of that comparison in the side, and SKA Khabarovsk 2 have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Daniil Borisov scored, was marked 7.81, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Andrey Putilov 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 Vladimir Tsapurin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dinamo St Petersburg arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at SKA Khabarovsk 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Alexandr Yermakov after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nürtilek Sulaymanov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and SKA Khabarovsk 2 needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stepan Burdakov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SKA Khabarovsk 2 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SKA Khabarovsk 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Tsapurin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Andrey Putilov has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vladimir Tsapurin signs something — a contract at SKA Khabarovsk 2 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aslan Goyaev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
Looking aheadLooking ahead: the trip to Znamya Truda
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Demjan Iljev did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SKA Khabarovsk 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Tsapurin 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 is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ovik Galayan 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Arsenal Tula 2 tried to reorganise, SKA Khabarovsk 2 did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Alexandr Yermakov could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutAndrey Putilov asks for a word with the manager
7.56, 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.
Yaroslav Grebenkin 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Maxim Pechenkin is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Tsapurin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody at SKA Khabarovsk 2 saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 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.
It needed Alexandr Mukhin to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Zenit Penza, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Alexandr Yermakov chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Alexandr Mukhin 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 had been thinking. Vladimir Tsapurin 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 22 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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one SKA Khabarovsk 2 will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Alexandr Yermakov, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.