Marked for Bogdan Markov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match7 Aug 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against Mashuk, and it could have been more.
Squad9 Aug 2027
The match ball belongs to Vladislav Galkin, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market9 Aug 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 The request is on a desk at Veles, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match7 Aug 2027
Nobody wants to play Veles right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Veles
Ilja Kuptsov 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.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
A performance of 9.92 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match7 Aug 2027
6 goals as Veles and Mashuk go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Veles and Mashuk, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
Wages eat 135% of everything Veles earn
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmitry Kuchugura
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Veles lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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Squad22 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Veles
Ishkhan Geloyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
129% of the income goes out in wages at Veles
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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Dmitry Kuchugura has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Veles 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Bogdan Markov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Veles have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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Squad30 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Veles
Dmitry Sadov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 452% of everything Veles earn
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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Veles, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market30 Nov 2026
The name of Vladislav Galkin keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Veles say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. 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.
Match30 Sep 2026
The small margins put Veles out
Out, 1‑2 to Rubin, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Veles may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Veles
Dmitry Sadov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 629% of everything Veles earn
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.
The dugout5 Oct 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Dmitry Kuchugura
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Dmitry Kuchugura has come out of that comparison in the side, and Veles have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Veles counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Veles now.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 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 Veles can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Dmitry Sadov in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Veles asked and Lokomotiv 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Three points for Veles, 2‑0 the final word against Alania in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 8.45 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Karim Giraev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Ishkhan Geloyan dropped after a run of poor form
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.
Looking ahead17 Aug 2026
Veles take on the side everybody is chasing
Leningradets 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.