56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Torpedo Vladimir lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vladislav Sirotov and Torpedo Vladimir agree another 2 years.
Artem Biryukov 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 Laptev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugout4 Oct 2027
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.” Aleksandr Titov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Baltika 2 defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
In brief
The dugoutIvandro Silva knocks on the manager’s door
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Vladimir 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 Yegor Saigushev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torpedo Vladimir 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 Torpedo Vladimir 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.
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.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Torpedo Vladimir lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Vyaznikov 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.
Milo Rospape 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Torpedo Vladimir they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Saigushev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Milo Rospape 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.
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Torpedo Vladimir no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo Vladimir can pretend not to have heard.
Torpedo Vladimir had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at CSKA Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Vladimir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Saigushev 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 loan was meant to give him football. 0 games and 0 goals later he is back at Torpedo Vladimir no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
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 Danil Glinskiy is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Vyaznikov signs something — a contract at Torpedo Vladimir or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo Vladimir can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Volga is saying, and nobody at Torpedo Vladimir is enjoying the guessing.
Yegor Saigushev 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. Alexandr Vyaznikov 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Torpedo Vladimir, and 4 appearances in 29 say he has earned the hearing.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Torpedo Vladimir were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Torpedo Vladimir know it, and so does everybody who watches him.