75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zvezda lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Zvezda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Smirnov 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.
Sergey Oliynyk 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Arsen Nyshanaliev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zvezda lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zvezda, another week without a signature from Leon Aiba.
At 20 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Igor Smirnov 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.
Sergey Oliynyk 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zvezda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Zvezda people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Strogino for Alexandr Yegunov 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.
The deal with Kaluga 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Igor Smirnov 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.
10 combined actions and 6.79. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Zvezda had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Akron, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Zvezda asked and Akron said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Maxim Kopitets commits to Zvezda for another 3 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Igor Smirnov 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Artem Kolobov. 2‑0 against Cherepovets, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsArtem Kolobov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
“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 Zvezda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Roman Zaitsev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.71
A mark of 7.71 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Leon Aiba. 1‑0 against Saturn, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sergei Shestakov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Zvezda told Arsen Nyshanaliev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Alexandr Yegunov will call it something else in private.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zvezda know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
Player ratingsAndrey Zenyuk beats them one at a time
SquadBan served, and Artem Kolobov returns to the reckoning
Up for the corner, and Artem Kolobov delivers — 7.97
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Artem Kolobov scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Position 12, 15 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
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.
It needed Artem Kolobov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Tver, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Sergei Shestakov chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Iljas Abdullaev did not need any: 8.26, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Iljas Abdullaev 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Lebedev, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Sergei Shestakov kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.