Marked for Dan Kohout
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Nov 2028
“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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Avangard
Demjan Iljev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Avangard
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Knyazev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Avangard are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Yegor Yunusov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yegor Yunusov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“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 dugout20 Nov 2028
Dmitry Polukhin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Avangard 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.
Market20 Nov 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yegor Skorobogatko signs something — a contract at Avangard or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Looking ahead20 Nov 2028
A side in position 9 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 41. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market13 Nov 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
Khabib Agalarov: 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.” Avangard have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Demjan Iljev 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Avangard
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Knyazev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout13 Nov 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.
Match11 Nov 2028
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Avangard told Demjan Iljev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Match11 Nov 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
In brief
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Boardroom
Avangard have to sell first
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Market
Dan Kohout linked with a move away
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Radomir Markov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match4 Nov 2028
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Rustam Berzegov scored in the 89th minute, Dinamo Stavropol had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Avangard took the lot.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.45 for the rest of it.
Squad6 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Avangard
Danila Knyazev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces6 Nov 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Demjan Iljev 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Avangard can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The Avangard debt reaches $3.9M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces30 Oct 2028
The mood at Avangard has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market30 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Denis Traigel
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Traigel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
Pressure builds in the Avangard boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Avangard
Dan Kohout 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Avangard
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Knyazev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
158% of the income goes out in wages at Avangard
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.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
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
Upbeat
Match21 Oct 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Rodina 2, and it could have been more.
Market23 Oct 2028
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Danila Knyazev 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.
The terraces23 Oct 2028
Avangard supporters have found a favourite in Dan Kohout
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dan Kohout 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.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Ninety minutes of Dan Kohout at his very best
Marked 8.49. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Avangard.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Valerii Yurchuk, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Oct 2028
5 new faces, and Avangard are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Radomir Markov on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Avangard
Danila Knyazev 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 dugout16 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Grigory Komovnikov, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 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 Dmitry Polukhin is on it.
Looking ahead16 Oct 2028
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Rodina 2 in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
Savely Borisov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Savely Borisov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market16 Oct 2028
Dan Kohout linked with a move away
The name of Dan Kohout keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Avangard say nothing, which says plenty.
Market16 Oct 2028
Avangard have let the market know Grigory Komovnikov can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Squad16 Oct 2028
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Avangard would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Squad16 Oct 2028
The training reports on Savely Borisov 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
Match4 Oct 2028
Rubin ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
What a way to start for Luken Peña — 7.21
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.21 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Dan Kohout 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Danila Knyazev 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.
Match7 Oct 2028
No clean sheets in sight for Avangard
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom9 Oct 2028
Avangard are $3.8M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces2 Oct 2028
The mood at Avangard has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.93 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match30 Sep 2028
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Dan Kohout scored in the 86th minute, Kyzyltash had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Avangard took the lot.
Market2 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Denis Traigel
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Traigel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
Pressure builds in the Avangard boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Avangard
Demjan Iljev 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.
Match30 Sep 2028
Avangard are at home on the road
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Match30 Sep 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dan Kohout. 3‑2 against Kyzyltash, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Sep 2028
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Demjan Iljev 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match16 Sep 2028
Three points for Avangard, 3‑1 the final word against Neftyanik in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Transfer targets18 Sep 2028
Avangard asked and Khimik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Danila Knyazev 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.
The terraces18 Sep 2028
Avangard supporters have found a favourite in Dan Kohout
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dan Kohout 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.
Match16 Sep 2028
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Avangard. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Danila Knyazev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. 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 terraces18 Sep 2028
Avangard's travelling support get something back at Neftyanik
They paid twice — for the ticket and for the journey — and got a 3-1 win for it. Away support is the truest kind precisely because nothing about it is convenient.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Window shuts: 8 in, 14 out at Avangard
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words exchanged at Avangard
Dan Kohout 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.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
Avangard asked and Alania said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Knyazev 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.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Avangard are $3.6M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
“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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Avangard know which stage they are at.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Nobody arrives at Avangard until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Avangard this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Avangard will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Aug 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Avangard people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Marked 7.74 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Mashuk keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Dan Kohout 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo St Petersburg have kept their man, and Avangard go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Danila Knyazev 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.
The terraces28 Aug 2028
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match26 Aug 2028
Three points for Avangard, 2‑0 the final word against Angusht in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Aug 2028
Avangard through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Spartak Tambov, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market21 Aug 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad21 Aug 2028
A falling-out at Avangard
Dan Kohout and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Salyut have kept their man, and Avangard go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Knyazev 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 terraces21 Aug 2028
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
The manager makes an example of Valerii Yurchuk
“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.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
A mark of 7.54, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces10 Jul 2028
Supporters organise against the Avangard board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Avangard
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market10 Jul 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Avangard have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market10 Jul 2028
Only the photograph left for Denis Traigel
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Traigel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market10 Jul 2028
Vilmos Jován hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Dan Kohout 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.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valerii Yurchuk 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.
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
Wages swallow 125% of the Avangard 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
It is arithmetic now, and the arithmetic is done. A summer of hard questions starts early at Avangard, and next season's fixture list reads very differently.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Radomir Markov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market3 Jul 2028
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The Avangard board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market3 Jul 2028
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Dan Kohout 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Jul 2028
Add another name to the list: Strogino have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alexandr Khrebtov. The answer from Avangard has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad3 Jul 2028
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Yegor Balitskiy has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces12 Jun 2028
Anger at Avangard spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
Pressure builds in the Avangard boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market12 Jun 2028
Denis Traigel has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avangard they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Jun 2028
A falling-out at Avangard
Alexey Sukharev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
The numbers do not look good at Avangard
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Valerii Yurchuk
“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.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
Wages eat 123% of everything Avangard 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 dugout12 Jun 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yegor Balitskiy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 Jun 2028
The Dan Kohout talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Avangard know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 May 2028
Avangard sink to position 8
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market22 May 2028
Vilmos Jován has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avangard they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 May 2028
Words exchanged at Avangard
Dan Kohout 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 dugout22 May 2028
“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 May 2028
Alexey Sukharev 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.
Market22 May 2028
Avangard have made Alexey Sukharev available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces15 May 2028
Supporters organise against the Avangard board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom15 May 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Avangard
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Avangard is running low.
Market15 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Avangard is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 May 2028
Dan Kohout 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.
Boardroom15 May 2028
Belts tighten at Avangard
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valerii Yurchuk 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.
Boardroom15 May 2028
Wages eat 133% of everything Avangard 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 dugout15 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexey Sukharev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market15 May 2028
The Dan Kohout talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Avangard know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Apr 2028
The mood at Avangard has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Avangard
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Avangard is running low.
Market17 Apr 2028
Only the photograph left for Denis Traigel
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Traigel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Dan Kohout 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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
Belts tighten at Avangard
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Valerii Yurchuk 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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
Wages swallow 102% of the Avangard 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 dugout17 Apr 2028
A promise honoured at Avangard
Something was said to Dmitry Zakharov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Market17 Apr 2028
The name of Dmitry Zakharov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Avangard say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Apr 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Market10 Apr 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Avangard is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Danila Knyazev knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Avangard, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“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 dugout10 Apr 2028
Denis Cheremisin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Avangard 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.
Market10 Apr 2028
Dan Kohout linked with a move away
The name of Dan Kohout keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Avangard say nothing, which says plenty.
Loan watch10 Apr 2028
The goals keep arriving from Alexandr Khrebtov’s exile
5 goals in 25 games at Kyzyltash — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Avangard updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad10 Apr 2028
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Avangard says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“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 Avangard will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Apr 2028
Maxim Slobodchikov damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The Avangard board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Avangard
Dan Kohout and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Avangard
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valerii Yurchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch3 Apr 2028
19 appearances at Rubin Yalta and the goals have stopped going in. Avangard lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
Alexey Sukharev 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 dugout3 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Polukhin, and the manager let it.
Market3 Apr 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bohdan Shmyhelskyi signs something — a contract at Avangard or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Mar 2028
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Avangard lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match27 Mar 2028
Avangard are in real trouble now
Position 8, 12 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market27 Mar 2028
Vilmos Jován has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avangard they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Avangard
Dan Kohout 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 Mar 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valerii Yurchuk 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 dugout27 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Traigel, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Mar 2028
Maxim Slobodchikov damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Market13 Mar 2028
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market13 Mar 2028
Savely Borisov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avangard they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Avangard
Alexey Sukharev 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Valerii Yurchuk 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.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dmitry Kumsarov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Arman Ghukasyan
“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 dugout13 Mar 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 Denis Cheremisin is on it.
Market13 Mar 2028
Dan Kohout linked with a move away
The name of Dan Kohout keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Avangard say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Feb 2028
Every point is an argument now for Avangard
Position 8 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad28 Feb 2028
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Avangard lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market28 Feb 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Neftyanik waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Avangard is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market28 Feb 2028
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Window shuts: 2 in, 2 out at Avangard
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets28 Feb 2028
Avangard had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at KAMAZ, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Avangard
Dan Kohout 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.
Transfer targets28 Feb 2028
Avangard asked and Torpedo 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.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Feb 2028
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 Feb 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Avangard is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
Avangard had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Chaika, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Dan Kohout 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wigi Pratama 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 dugout14 Feb 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexey Sukharev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“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 dugout14 Feb 2028
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
Crisis
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market7 Feb 2028
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market7 Feb 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Luki-Energiya waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Avangard is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market7 Feb 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Torpedo Moscow; Avangard go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Avangard
Dan Kohout and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Avangard asked and Druzhba said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
Loan watch7 Feb 2028
“I watch every Avangard game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kyzyltash runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
Market10 Jan 2028
Only the photograph left for Savely Borisov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Savely Borisov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Avangard
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Knyazev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Avangard
Yegor Skorobogatko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Denis Cheremisin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Avangard 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.
Market10 Jan 2028
The Dan Kohout story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dan Kohout signs something — a contract at Avangard or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Avangard will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Nerves in the Avangard squad
Valerii Yurchuk has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artem Nagaitsev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces27 Dec 2027
Anger at Avangard spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Avangard
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Avangard is running low.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vegard Hovland
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad27 Dec 2027
52 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Dan Kohout 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
Wages swallow 103% of the Avangard 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vegard Hovland
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market20 Dec 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Dan Kohout 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Danila Knyazev 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.
The dugout20 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 dugout20 Dec 2027
Alexey Sukharev 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vegard Hovland
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market13 Dec 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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market13 Dec 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Avangard is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Savely Borisov is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Dmitry Kumsarov
“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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Wigi Pratama 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.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
Denis Cheremisin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Avangard 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 dugout13 Dec 2027
Dmitry Zakharov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Dec 2027
Every point is an argument now for Avangard
Position 8 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Radomir Markov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Alexey Sukharev 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.
Loan watch6 Dec 2027
“I watch every Avangard game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kyzyltash runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
Dmitry Kumsarov 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
The captaincy has been taken off Dmitry Zakharov. Avangard will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Market6 Dec 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bohdan Shmyhelskyi signs something — a contract at Avangard or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
A squad written off a fortnight ago has closed ranks. Whatever was said behind that door, it has held so far.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A few words of the language, a friend at the next peg, and a training ground that has stopped feeling foreign. Nothing measurable, and everything visible on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Nov 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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market15 Nov 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Avangard is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Danila Knyazev
“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 dugout15 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 Denis Cheremisin is on it.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Avangard would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vikenty Schipachev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market15 Nov 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dan Kohout’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad15 Nov 2027
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Avangard says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Nov 2027
Every point is an argument now for Avangard
Position 8 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market8 Nov 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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Avangard
Dan Kohout and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Valerii Yurchuk 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.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Traigel, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Dmitry Kumsarov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Dmitry Kumsarov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Avangard have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager's exit leaves Valerii Yurchuk exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Valerii Yurchuk is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Oct 2027
Avangard sink to position 8
9 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market11 Oct 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Alexey Sukharev 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 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Nagaitsev, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Avangard
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wigi Pratama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market11 Oct 2027
The Dan Kohout story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dan Kohout signs something — a contract at Avangard or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout11 Oct 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Avangard says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
Market11 Oct 2027
Avangard have made Yegor Tinyakov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 Oct 2027
Anger at Avangard spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Avangard
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Valerii Yurchuk and Avangard agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Loan watch4 Oct 2027
“I did not go to Rubin Yalta to sit and watch. I want to come back to Avangard and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Match2 Oct 2027
0‑2 to Torpedo Miass, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
100% of the income goes out in wages at Avangard
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
“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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Sep 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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market20 Sep 2027
Only the photograph left for Savely Borisov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Savely Borisov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yegor Yunusov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match18 Sep 2027
The drought breaks for Avangard
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Legion were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Avangard
Dan Kohout 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.
Transfer targets20 Sep 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valerii Yurchuk 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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Sep 2027
Avangard sink to position 8
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market13 Sep 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Both of them Dan Kohout's — 8.68
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.68, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match11 Sep 2027
7 matches without a win for Avangard
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Avangard are no longer polite ones.
Market13 Sep 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
No sign of nerves from Savely Borisov at 19 — 7.68
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Savely Borisov did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Window shuts: 10 in, 9 out at Avangard
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Avangard
Dan Kohout and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Aug 2027
The bid was some way short and Avangard did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market30 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Avangard people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match28 Aug 2027
6 matches without a win for Avangard
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Avangard are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with Sokol, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Avangard had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Nizhniy Novgorod, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match28 Aug 2027
4 matches without a goal for Avangard
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Avangard
Alexey Sukharev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Aug 2027
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match18 Aug 2027
Avangard march on in the cup
Rodina M are out and Avangard go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Market23 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kyzyltash waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Avangard is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match21 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Avangard's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Avangard has to find a result from somewhere.
Market23 Aug 2027
The phone has started ringing about Dan Kohout again, and this time the name on the line is Bohemians 1905. Avangard are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
No thanks: Emil Maiorov rejects the move
Avangard had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ufa, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad23 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Aug 2027
3 matches without a goal for Avangard
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Avangard asked and Orenburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Avangard have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Dan Kohout, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad2 Aug 2027
6 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bohdan Shmyhelskyi and Avangard agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Dan Kohout 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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KAMAZ have kept their man, and Avangard go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Vilmos Jován
“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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
A loan move for Igor Gershun is in the works
Avangard have made the call to Volga. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout26 Jul 2027
Daniil Sedov: 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.” Avangard have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
No sign of nerves from Dan Kohout at 20 — 8.43
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dan Kohout did not need any: 8.43, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Rustam Berzegov pops up at the right end — 7.37
7.37, 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The deal with Torpedo Moscow is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Avangard
Dan Kohout 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
$140.0K was the most the club would pay and Ufa were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Match24 Jul 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rustam Berzegov. 3‑1 against Legion, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Avangard asked and KAMAZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Avangard had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Textilschik, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The deal with Volga is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
$140.0K on the table at Ufa. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Avangard
Alexey Sukharev 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Avangard will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Daniil Sedov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniil Sedov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Avangard people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market28 Jun 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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Jun 2027
He is 20, he is averaging 7.03, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Avangard have gone to Arsenal Tula with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yegor Yunusov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Danila Knyazev 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.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniil Sedov, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Avangard have made the call to Spartak Kostroma. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jun 2027
Dmitry Kumsarov damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Dan Kohout 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Avangard
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Slobodchikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Jun 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.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
Wages eat 85% of everything Avangard 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 dugout14 Jun 2027
Danila Knyazev knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Danila Knyazev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jun 2027
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Avangard lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A season's verdict on Dan Kohout: the best of his age
Avangard have a 20-year-old the division has just voted its finest young footballer. The club's next problem is that everybody else now knows it too.
Match7 Jun 2027
Avangard up to position 3
18 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad7 Jun 2027
The season belongs to Dan Kohout
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Avangard have had the benefit of it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Avangard
Danila Knyazev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Alexey Sukharev 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 May 2027
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Avangard lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market31 May 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avangard they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad31 May 2027
Dan Kohout is the real thing at 20
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Avangard know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad31 May 2027
Words exchanged at Avangard
Valerii Yurchuk 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.
Boardroom31 May 2027
Avangard counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Avangard now.
The dugout31 May 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Avangard. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 May 2027
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Avangard lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom17 May 2027
Wages swallow 96% of the Avangard 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 dugout17 May 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.
Market17 May 2027
Dan Kohout linked with a move away
The name of Dan Kohout keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Avangard say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout17 May 2027
Daniil Sedov has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Daniil Sedov has written the date down.
Squad17 May 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Avangard will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmitry Kumsarov
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match10 May 2027
Avangard are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 18 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The dugout10 May 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Daniil Sedov has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Avangard will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout10 May 2027
Rustam Berzegov 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 dugout10 May 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Avangard. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
Dmitry Kumsarov damages knee ligaments — 60 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
Market3 May 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avangard they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 May 2027
He is 20, he is averaging 7.03, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad3 May 2027
A row about effort at Avangard
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Knyazev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom3 May 2027
Avangard counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Avangard now.
The dugout3 May 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout3 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dmitry Kumsarov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market3 May 2027
Avangard have let the market know Alexandr Khrebtov can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Avangard lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Avangard
Dan Kohout and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Knyazev 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Avangard know it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Daniil Sedov
“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 dugout26 Apr 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexey Sukharev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmitry Kumsarov
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Avangard
Dan Kohout and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
91% of the income goes out in wages at Avangard
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmitry Kumsarov
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Apr 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Tereshkin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Dan Kohout is the real thing at 20
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Avangard know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad5 Apr 2027
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Avangard
Alexey Sukharev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Daniil Sedov has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Daniil Sedov has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Mar 2027
Dmitry Kumsarov damages knee ligaments — 104 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 104 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Danila Knyazev 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
96% of the income goes out in wages at Avangard
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
Dmitry Kumsarov damages knee ligaments — 118 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 118 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.
Transfer targets8 Mar 2027
Avangard had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Shinnik, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market8 Mar 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Tereshkin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Dan Kohout is the real thing at 20
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Avangard know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Valerii Yurchuk and Avangard agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Dan Kohout 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 dugout8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yegor Balitskiy, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Avangard, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market8 Mar 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Avangard know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
125 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Avangard lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market1 Mar 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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Avangard close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Mashuk keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Dan Kohout 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Danila Knyazev 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Wigi Pratama and Avangard agree another 3 years.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniil Sedov, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Alexey Sukharev 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tver waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Avangard is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
The deal with Yenisey is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Avangard
Valerii Yurchuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to Mashuk: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
A loan move for Ilja Dyatlov is in the works
Avangard have made the call to Rodina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to Metallurg: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
The deal with Shinnik is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad8 Feb 2027
At 20, Dan Kohout is already the best thing here
An average of 7.03 in a first team he is several years too young for. Avangard have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
$7.0K was the most the club would pay and Kaluga were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
A loan move for Omar Popov is in the works
Avangard have made the call to Dinamo St Petersburg. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Avangard have made the call to Arsenal Tula. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Avangard would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
92% of the income goes out in wages at Avangard
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 dugout25 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The Dan Kohout story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dan Kohout signs something — a contract at Avangard or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match18 Jan 2027
Avangard refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 18 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Avangard
Dan Kohout 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 dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Alexey Sukharev
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 20, Dan Kohout is already the best thing here
An average of 7.03 in a first team he is several years too young for. Avangard have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Avangard
Alexey Sukharev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yegor Balitskiy is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The dugout11 Jan 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 dugout11 Jan 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexey Sukharev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Avangard lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Avangard will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Dan Kohout honoured for the season
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Avangard had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad4 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout4 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Avangard know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Avangard lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Avangard will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Alexey Sukharev 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
151% of the income goes out in wages at Avangard
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 dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vladislav Tereshkin, and the manager let it.