Marked for Wiktor Hatalski
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces14 Aug 2028
Anger at Gornik Leczna 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.
Market14 Aug 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 The request is on a desk at Gornik Leczna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
Iwo Świerkot: 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.” Gornik Leczna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Fabian Piasecki and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Aug 2028
Radomiak Radom left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Paweł Jaroszyński was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cracovia have kept their man, and Gornik Leczna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Aug 2028
The medical room confirms 18 days on the sidelines for Krystian Kołodziejczak, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 May 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 The request is on a desk at Gornik Leczna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 May 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gornik Leczna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad29 May 2028
Fran Álvarez 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 Gornik Leczna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom29 May 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Gornik Leczna now.
Squad29 May 2028
Noah König 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.
Market29 May 2028
A season away well spent by Michał Litwa
36 games, 15 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Gornik Leczna now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
The dugout29 May 2028
Felix Vogler 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.
Squad29 May 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 Gornik Leczna will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom15 May 2028
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Gornik Leczna is running low.
Market15 May 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Fran Álvarez 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Paweł Jaroszyński 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.
Loan watch15 May 2028
35 appearances away from home and 14 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad15 May 2028
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Boardroom15 May 2028
Wages swallow 121% of the Gornik Leczna 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Time is catching up with Jordán
Everybody at Gornik Leczna saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout15 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wiktor Hatalski trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 May 2028
Dawid Zielinski has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Gornik Leczna can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match8 May 2028
Every point is an argument now for Gornik Leczna
Position 16 and 32 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 May 2028
The Gornik Leczna 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.
Market8 May 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 Gornik Leczna can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 May 2028
Fran Álvarez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Gornik Leczna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah König 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.
Loan watch8 May 2028
34 appearances away from home and 13 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad8 May 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gornik Leczna can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market8 May 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces27 Mar 2028
Supporters organise against the Gornik Leczna 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jakub Lewandowski
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gornik Leczna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Fran Álvarez 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Ollie Hobden arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ollie Hobden has, at Gornik Leczna, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kamil Orlik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Wiktor Hatalski, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Fabian Piasecki’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Gornik Leczna needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market27 Mar 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jakub Bednarczyk signs something — a contract at Gornik Leczna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
João Vieira 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 João Vieira trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 48. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match29 Jan 2028
0‑3 to Nart, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market31 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.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Wiktor Hatalski has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Druzhba is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Druzhba have done the hard part with Rodina, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Avangard keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Eddi Tsanava 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 Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets31 Jan 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market17 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samvel Sargsyan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Druzhba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match15 Jan 2028
Druzhba cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad17 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Kirill Yushko 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.
Match15 Jan 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Soslan Cherdzhiev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Druzhba.
The terraces17 Jan 2028
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Marked 8.26 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
In brief
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The dugout
A promise honoured at Druzhba
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Player ratings
Asker Delok leaves them behind him
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andrija Čaluković
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Druzhba lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Zakhar Egorov has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Druzhba can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market3 Jan 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 Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.37, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Wiktor Hatalski has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Druzhba is pretending otherwise.
Market3 Jan 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Druzhba have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match1 Jan 2028
It had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Druzhba
Andrija Čaluković 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
Squad6 Dec 2027
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Druzhba lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
Zakhar Egorov has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Druzhba can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market6 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.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
This is not rotation. Wiktor Hatalski has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Druzhba is pretending otherwise.
Match4 Dec 2027
4 matches without a win for Druzhba
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Druzhba are no longer polite ones.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A falling-out at Druzhba
Andrija Čaluković and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The owner puts $137.5K into Druzhba
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Kirill Yushko 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.
Match4 Dec 2027
Spartak Nalchik left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Nov 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Platon Sotnikov
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Druzhba lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Druzhba
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Maxim Khachatryan 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.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Andrija Čaluković 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.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
252% of the income goes out in wages at Druzhba
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 dugout29 Nov 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.
Match27 Nov 2027
Druzhba rescue it on 88 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Dinamo Stavropol had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
The borrowing at Druzhba reaches $2.9M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $2.9M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
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
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Nov 2027
8 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.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
This is not rotation. Wiktor Hatalski has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Druzhba is pretending otherwise.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Druzhba may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Eddi Tsanava was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
The owner puts $119.8K into Druzhba
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrija Čaluković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Oct 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
This is not rotation. Wiktor Hatalski has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Druzhba is pretending otherwise.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Maxim Khachatryan 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Kirill Yushko 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 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.
Boardroom11 Oct 2027
Druzhba can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
Market11 Oct 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Druzhba, another week without a signature from Andrey Putilov.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Oliver Kubka 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.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
Kyzyltash next, and one man in the Druzhba dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Sep 2027
No end in sight to Druzhba's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Druzhba has to find a result from somewhere.
Market13 Sep 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Druzhba people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
This is not rotation. Wiktor Hatalski has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Druzhba is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Druzhba close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 10 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Druzhba
Andrija Čaluković and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
Druzhba asked and Dinamo Kirov 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 dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Zeki Aliev
“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.
Market13 Sep 2027
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Squad13 Sep 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 Druzhba will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Asker Delok
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The dugout
Tamerlan Khachirov has become a man the manager trusts
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Aug 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match28 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Druzhba's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Druzhba has to find a result from somewhere.
Market30 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samvel Sargsyan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Druzhba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
This is not rotation. Tamirlan Khakhov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Druzhba is pretending otherwise.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Andrija Čaluković 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 targets30 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Bryansk have kept their man, and Druzhba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tamerlan Khachirov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match28 Aug 2027
A bad afternoon for Druzhba against Nart
0‑1 to Nart, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
In brief
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Boardroom
No signings allowed at Druzhba
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The dugout
Asker Delok gets it from the manager
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Druzhba people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market16 Aug 2027
Druzhba say no — this time
The offer from Pyunik for Oliver Kubka was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market16 Aug 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
5 matches without a win for Druzhba
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Druzhba are no longer polite ones.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
This is not rotation. Wiktor Hatalski has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Druzhba is pretending otherwise.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Maxim Khachatryan 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 targets16 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrija Čaluković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market2 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Marked 7.89 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
This is not rotation. Tamirlan Khakhov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Druzhba is pretending otherwise.
Market2 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Druzhba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Andrija Čaluković 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.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The owner puts $26.5K into Druzhba
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Druzhba asked and Volga 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
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Zakhar Egorov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Jul 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Druzhba have done the hard part with Volga, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
This is not rotation. Tamirlan Khakhov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Druzhba is pretending otherwise.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Wiktor Hatalski 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
$1.6K of the owner's money at Druzhba
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Druzhba asked and Volgar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Andrija Čaluković 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 dugout5 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samvel Sargsyan, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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 Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Alan Khapishtov is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad28 Jun 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 Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom28 Jun 2027
Druzhba counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Druzhba now.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Druzhba asked and Sibir said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrija Čaluković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Druzhba have made the call to Avangard. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets28 Jun 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.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Rinat Kankulov
“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
Uneasy
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Druzhba
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Druzhba is running low.
Squad21 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Druzhba
Andrija Čaluković and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Druzhba asked and Avangard 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 dugout21 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.
Squad21 Jun 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 Druzhba will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Wiktor Hatalski 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
Uneasy
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrija Čaluković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
Wages swallow 157% of the Druzhba 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Artur Zezarakhov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Druzhba.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Artur Zezarakhov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Druzhba 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
The name of Andrija Čaluković keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Druzhba say nothing, which says plenty.
Market14 Jun 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Tamirlan Khakhov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market14 Jun 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 May 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Tamerlan Khachirov 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
Druzhba counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Druzhba now.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anatoly-Talmas Muradov 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.
Market31 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Asker Delok’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout31 May 2027
Madin Kobzh 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 Druzhba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 May 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 Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2027
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrija Čaluković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom17 May 2027
Wages swallow 168% of the Druzhba 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.
The dugout17 May 2027
Samvel Sargsyan 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 dugout17 May 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.
Market17 May 2027
The name of Andrija Čaluković keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Druzhba say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad17 May 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
Uneasy
Squad10 May 2027
Maxim Chistov damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Andrija Čaluković 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Tamerlan Khachirov 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Oliver Kubka 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 Druzhba will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout10 May 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 Andrija Čaluković is on it.
The dugout10 May 2027
Dejan Onisiwo 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 Druzhba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market10 May 2027
Renat Tlyashok is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Druzhba has been clear about where Renat Tlyashok stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market10 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Zeki Aliev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market10 May 2027
7 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Druzhba could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 59. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 May 2027
Maxim Chistov damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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 May 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.
Market3 May 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.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Andrija Čaluković, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84
A mark of 7.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad3 May 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 Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom3 May 2027
The numbers do not look good at Druzhba
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.
Squad3 May 2027
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrija Čaluković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match1 May 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Wiktor Hatalski’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Druzhba.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Apr 2027
No end in sight to Druzhba's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Druzhba has to find a result from somewhere.
Match10 Apr 2027
Nowhere to hide for Druzhba
0‑3 against Rostov 2, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Eddi Tsanava 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 Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrija Čaluković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Wiktor Hatalski
“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 ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom12 Apr 2027
Nobody left the Druzhba dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Jan 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑2 against Chaika M, and it could have been more.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
A brace, and Andrija Čaluković takes the afternoon — 8.10
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrija Čaluković provided it, and the 8.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Andrija Čaluković 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Druzhba and Chaika M, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match16 Jan 2027
At last: Druzhba win one
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Chaika M. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tamerlan Khachirov 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 terraces18 Jan 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Maxim Khachatryan 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 ratings18 Jan 2027
Maxim Khachatryan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Artur Zezarakhov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match21 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Druzhba's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Druzhba has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Tamerlan Khachirov 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Rostov 2 left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Zakhar Egorov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Andrija Čaluković has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Druzhba 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anatoly-Talmas Muradov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market23 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Tamerlan Khachirov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Druzhba
A 1‑4 beating by Kuban Holding was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match24 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Druzhba
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Andrija Čaluković 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tamerlan Khachirov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
Doors closed at Druzhba
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Druzhba 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Zakhar Egorov to a room that had heard them before.