Marked for Vladislav Fezhenko
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Oct 2028
Kairat up to position 2
50 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Tempers go at Kairat
Uroš Milovanović 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Kairat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erkin Tapalov 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.
Market30 Oct 2028
Vladislav Fezhenko is 20, and Kairat have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Kairat told Damir Qasabūlat something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
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 Aleksandr Mrynskii is on it.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
Denis Samoilov 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.
Market30 Oct 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Luís Mata has company in his position
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Luís Mata keeps the shirt for now, at Kairat's convenience rather than his own.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Pressure builds in the Uni-X Labs boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
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.
Market3 Jan 2028
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Uni-X Labs were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
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.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“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.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
$26.6K taken back off the Uni-X Labs table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Squad3 Jan 2028
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Uni-X Labs has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Dec 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Khramtsevich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
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 Matvey Svidinskiy is on it.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“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.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Matvey Kovruk
“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.
Market27 Dec 2027
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Uni-X Labs could get for him.
Market27 Dec 2027
Uni-X Labs have let the market know Daniil Chergeyko can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Squad27 Dec 2027
The training reports on Daniil Chergeyko 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
Uneasy
Market6 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Market6 Dec 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniil Chergeyko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Matvey Svidinskiy 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 dugout6 Dec 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 dugout6 Dec 2027
Vladimir Popov 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.
The dugout6 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Nov 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Matvey Svidinskiy 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 dugout29 Nov 2027
Matvey Svidinskiy has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Uni-X Labs 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 dugout29 Nov 2027
“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.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrei Signevich, and the manager let it.
Squad29 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Nov 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yaroslav Khramtsevich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Nov 2027
Matvey Kovruk damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Market8 Nov 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Market8 Nov 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Khramtsevich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
Wages eat 85% of everything Uni-X Labs 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 dugout8 Nov 2027
“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.
The dugout8 Nov 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.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matvey Kovruk, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Nov 2027
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Uni-X Labs lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market1 Nov 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Fezhenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Khramtsevich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artur Kats, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
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 Matvey Svidinskiy is on it.