Rrok Toma 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.
Squad17 Sep 2040
Bulat Gatin 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 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.
Nobody at Chelyabinsk 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chelyabinsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.44 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Chelyabinsk and Chernomorets in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad10 Sep 2040
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bulat Gatin 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Sergio Parise 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Aug 2040
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bulat Gatin 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.
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.
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.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chelyabinsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Rrok Toma 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Chelyabinsk have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad30 Jul 2040
Bulat Gatin 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.
Boardroom30 Jul 2040
175% of the income goes out in wages at Chelyabinsk
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.
Nobody at Chelyabinsk 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Denis Pushkarev signs something — a contract at Chelyabinsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2040
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bulat Gatin 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.
In brief
SquadRalph Stein has become a man the manager trusts
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chelyabinsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rrok Toma 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 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.
13 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Baltika? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chelyabinsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Jonathan Fugelsnes decided nobody was going anywhere. Fakel had no time left to answer.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Chelyabinsk is running low.
Rrok Toma 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.
Squad30 Jan 2040
Bulat Gatin 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jonathan Fugelsnes. 2‑1 against Fakel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Noah Freuler is 20, and Chelyabinsk have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chelyabinsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 1‑0 win over KAMAZ, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad26 Dec 2039
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Romeo Sandrucci 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chelyabinsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
520 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chelyabinsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lucas Girotti. 1‑0 against Nizhniy Novgorod, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Shinnik spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ralph Stein will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chelyabinsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk 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: Lucas Girotti. 3‑2 against Shinnik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Nov 2039
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bulat Gatin 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.
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.
In brief
BoardroomThe numbers do not look good at Chelyabinsk
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Dinamo Makhachkala kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Chelyabinsk will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chelyabinsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Boardroom24 Oct 2039
142% of the income goes out in wages at Chelyabinsk
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.
Squad24 Oct 2039
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Romeo Sandrucci 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Steven Wright obliged against Chaika. 3‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Chelyabinsk.
Two goals and a mark of 8.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chelyabinsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Chelyabinsk did not have in the autumn.
Squad10 Oct 2039
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bulat Gatin 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.
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: Alexandr Novosad. 1‑0 against Akron, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Rrok Toma 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Foma Yelizarov is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad25 Jul 2039
Lucas Girotti 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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadMateo Petkovic falls out with a teammate over standards
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk 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 Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Rrok Toma 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.
Squad14 Mar 2039
Bulat Gatin 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.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chelyabinsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Rrok Toma 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 2039
Bulat Gatin 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.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Nathan Henderson will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Chelyabinsk escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Feb 2039
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bulat Gatin 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.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Rrok Toma 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.
Rubin will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Stepan Obryvkov has pre-agreed a move to Chelyabinsk, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad14 Feb 2039
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Petkovic 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chelyabinsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Feb 2039
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bulat Gatin 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.
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings31 Jan 2039
Joel Berghuis, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Rrok Toma 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Stepan Alekseev has just signed for Chelyabinsk, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad31 Jan 2039
Bulat Gatin 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.
A 1‑0 win over Nizhniy Novgorod, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Chelyabinsk scored in the 97th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
There were 8 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.
Player ratings24 Jan 2039
Joel Berghuis, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 9.31
A mark of 9.31 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Leclercq will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chelyabinsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Rrok Toma 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.
Squad17 Jan 2039
Bulat Gatin 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Joel Berghuis 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chelyabinsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk 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 Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2039
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bulat Gatin 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.
3 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.
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 Chelyabinsk have had the benefit of it.
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chelyabinsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Dec 2038
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bulat Gatin 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.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Rrok Toma 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.
“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 Chelyabinsk know it.
Squad20 Dec 2038
Bulat Gatin 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chelyabinsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Lucas Girotti decided nobody was going anywhere. Yenisey had no time left to answer.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 easiest signature of my career.” Nathan Henderson and Chelyabinsk agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Rrok Toma 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.
Three points for Chelyabinsk, 3‑2 the final word against Akhmat in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad6 Dec 2038
Bulat Gatin 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lorenzo Orzán signs something — a contract at Chelyabinsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Rrok Toma decided otherwise. Arsenal Tula had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Leclercq will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chelyabinsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk 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: Rrok Toma. 3‑2 against Arsenal Tula, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
SquadWords at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
SquadIlja Tuseev has become a man the manager trusts
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk 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 Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Volga spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Squad15 Nov 2038
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Romeo Sandrucci 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.