Marked for Alexandr Peshkov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Jul 2028
16 matches without a win for Kolomna
The run now stands at 16, and the questions being asked around Kolomna are no longer polite ones.
Market31 Jul 2028
Alexey Zhirkov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kolomna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Artem Albastov is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match29 Jul 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Davydov, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Jul 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 Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Jul 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Denis Davydov signs something — a contract at Kolomna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Nobody at Kolomna is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 9. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Yuriy Plotnikov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
Crisis meeting at Kolomna
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market5 Jun 2028
Only the photograph left for Alexey Zhirkov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexey Zhirkov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kolomna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Kirill Matsak 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Alexandr Peshkov for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Kolomna will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Albastov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Feb 2028
Kirill Matsak 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yaroslav Kolesnichenko and Kolomna agree another 3 years.
Market28 Feb 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Kolomna have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
Yuriy Plotnikov has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Kolomna can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad6 Dec 2027
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match4 Dec 2027
The wait goes on for Kolomna
5 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Alexandr Peshkov: 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.” Kolomna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market6 Dec 2027
Only the photograph left for Alexey Zhirkov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexey Zhirkov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kolomna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Rauf Novruzov 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.
Match4 Dec 2027
Dinamo Vologda left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad6 Dec 2027
The manager's exit leaves Denis Davydov exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Denis Davydov is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
Kolomna pull $2.1K back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces9 Aug 2027
The mood at Kolomna 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Kirill Matsak damages knee ligaments — 41 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Match7 Aug 2027
11 matches without a win for Kolomna
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Kolomna are no longer polite ones.
Market9 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 Kolomna can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 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 Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Deividas Kuklys commits to Kolomna for another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Jul 2027
Kirill Matsak damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Match24 Jul 2027
9 matches without a win for Kolomna
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Kolomna are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
No sign of nerves from Astemir Mambetov at 21 — 7.82
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Astemir Mambetov did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad26 Jul 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 Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Jul 2027
Yenisey 2 left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Arseny Yerastov
“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.