Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 15 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 12 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
0‑6 to Spartak Moscow 2, 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Yenisey 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces21 Aug 2028
The stands have turned
“Enough is enough. We have watched this for months.” 3 of the 12 senior players walked off to it, and the message was not aimed at any one of them.
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match19 Aug 2028
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Yenisey 2 and Spartak Moscow 2 in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Yenisey 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Yenisey 2 dressing room in a hurry
11 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“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 The request is on a desk at Yenisey 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Yenisey 2 and Cherepovets, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Alexandr Shashkov 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 17 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 10 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 12 goals between Yenisey 2 and Irkutsk, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
24 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.
9 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 14 goals between Yenisey 2 and Dinamo Vologda, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Muslim Temerbiev has, at Yenisey 2, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Alexandr Shashkov knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Squad31 Jul 2028
5 new faces, and Yenisey 2 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.
0‑14 against Torpedo Miass, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 8 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match22 Jul 2028
Nobody could stop scoring
14 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Yenisey 2 and Torpedo Miass in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Volna can pretend not to have heard.
Pavel Popov 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.
Chelyabinsk paid $14.0K and Volna took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Severjanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Alexandr Shashkov again, and this time the name on the line is Dinamo Barnaul. Volna are listening politely and promising nothing.
A loan enquiry to SKA Khabarovsk: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Volna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Volna have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Kirill Bogdanets 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 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 window is open, and with it the only month of the year when a supporter’s hopes are limited by nothing but arithmetic. The board know the arithmetic; the supporters know the hopes.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gocha Gogrichiani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Volna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal that would have taken Alexandr Shashkov to Shakhter Donetsk has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Volna with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Volna were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khachim Mashukov 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Volna, another week without a signature from Mikhail Zabotkin.
“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 Volna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Volna will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Volna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The name of Arseny Yagodkin has come up in conversations Volna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Volna, and 6 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Volna have made the call to Dinamo Bryansk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Volna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pavel Popov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Severjanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Volna have lost him in all but the paperwork.
At 23 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 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Volna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Kirill Bogdanets 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Igor Belyakov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Volna needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Volna would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexandr Shashkov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikita Chugunov signs something — a contract at Volna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.