Marked for Stefano Specker
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Aug 2036
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Moscow 2 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Aug 2036
“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 The request is on a desk at Dinamo Moscow 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market4 Aug 2036
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market4 Aug 2036
Only the photograph left for Andrei Blinov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrei Blinov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Moscow 2 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Aug 2036
Kirill Simonov 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 ratings4 Aug 2036
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Moscow 2.
Squad4 Aug 2036
Words at Dinamo Moscow 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Fadeev 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.
Player ratings4 Aug 2036
Successful dribbles: 16. 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
Steady
Squad28 Jul 2036
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
Market28 Jul 2036
Only the photograph left for Ivan Lepskiy
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ivan Lepskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Moscow 2 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market28 Jul 2036
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Moscow 2 have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings28 Jul 2036
Kirill Simonov pops up at the right end — 7.86
7.86, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Words at Dinamo Moscow 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Fadeev 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 dugout28 Jul 2036
The manager makes an example of Alexandr Fadeev
“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.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Too much change too quickly at Dinamo Moscow 2
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Andrei Blinov 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.
Match26 Jul 2036
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Jul 2036
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Arsenal Tula waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Moscow 2 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad14 Jul 2036
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Moscow 2 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market14 Jul 2036
“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.
Market14 Jul 2036
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Moscow 2 did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad14 Jul 2036
Nikita Khvat 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 Jul 2036
Words at Dinamo Moscow 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Chevardin 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Apr 2036
Only the photograph left for Jamie Schuldes
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jamie Schuldes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Moscow the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout21 Apr 2036
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad21 Apr 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 Apr 2036
Arouna Sanganté back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Dinamo Moscow has worked with Arouna Sanganté before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
The dugout21 Apr 2036
“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.
The dugout21 Apr 2036
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 Jamalutdin Abdulkadyrov is on it.
Market21 Apr 2036
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Dinamo Moscow money.
Market21 Apr 2036
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Lucas Bergström’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Loan watch21 Apr 2036
33 starts and a season average of 6.83. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Dec 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Moscow they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings17 Dec 2035
Up for the corner, and Chinaza Nwosu delivers — 7.90
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Chinaza Nwosu scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad17 Dec 2035
Jamalutdin Abdulkadyrov 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.
Match15 Dec 2035
The run at home goes on for Dinamo Moscow
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match15 Dec 2035
A 2‑1 win over Rostov, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings17 Dec 2035
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.28, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad17 Dec 2035
Words at Dinamo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jamie Schuldes 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.
Squad17 Dec 2035
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout17 Dec 2035
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 Sergey Pinyaev is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market20 Aug 2035
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Dinamo Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad20 Aug 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom20 Aug 2035
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad20 Aug 2035
Abdoulaye Nassoko 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.
Looking ahead20 Aug 2035
Spartak Moscow next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Player ratings20 Aug 2035
Marked 7.39. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout20 Aug 2035
“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 dugout20 Aug 2035
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Jul 2035
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Lucas Bergström had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
Dinamo Moscow offered $6.7M; Zenit said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Market16 Jul 2035
“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 Dinamo Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
The offer went to Krasnodar this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market16 Jul 2035
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Stefano Specker gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Stefano Specker has just signed for Dinamo Moscow, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Jamalutdin Abdulkadyrov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market16 Jul 2035
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Stefano Specker has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
Boardroom16 Jul 2035
12 academy players handed senior numbers at Dinamo Moscow
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom16 Jul 2035
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Luka Elbakidze breaks a bone — 100 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom16 Jul 2035
Sochi have nobody left to take training
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Boardroom16 Jul 2035
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vasily Kalinovsky has just signed for Sochi, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sochi have done the hard part with Zenit, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
Sochi asked and Rubin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Tempers go at Sochi
Mateo Antoni 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jun 2035
110 days out for Nikolay Titkov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sochi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market18 Jun 2035
“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.
Squad18 Jun 2035
Tempers go at Sochi
Mateo Antoni 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 targets18 Jun 2035
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.
Squad18 Jun 2035
A row about effort at Sochi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Duncan Lindhout was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad18 Jun 2035
26 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
A loan move for Eldar Guseinov is in the works
Sochi have made the call to Krasnodar. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
A loan enquiry to Basel: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout18 Jun 2035
Anton Serov gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 May 2035
Sochi are in real trouble now
Position 14, 25 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad14 May 2035
56 days out for Adam Matthews after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sochi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market14 May 2035
Ivan Gulko has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sochi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 May 2035
Tempers go at Sochi
Ivan Churikov 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 May 2035
A row about effort at Sochi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateo Antoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market14 May 2035
“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.
The dugout14 May 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kryštof Lichtenberg, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 May 2035
When it matters, Yegor Mosin plays
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.
Squad14 May 2035
Nerves in the Sochi squad
Dominik Yankov has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Apr 2035
Every point is an argument now for Sochi
Position 14 and 25 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.
Market16 Apr 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sochi can pretend not to have heard.
Market16 Apr 2035
Ivan Gulko has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sochi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Mateo Antoni 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 Sochi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces16 Apr 2035
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Valentin Tolstoy 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.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
“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.
Squad16 Apr 2035
A row about effort at Sochi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gamid Agalarov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings16 Apr 2035
Marked 7.80 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Sochi had the best player on the pitch.
Squad16 Apr 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nikita Kuzin and Sochi agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Apr 2035
Maxim Laikin hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sochi can pretend not to have heard.
Market2 Apr 2035
Maxim Laikin has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sochi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad2 Apr 2035
A falling-out at Sochi
Ivan Churikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Words at Sochi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Antoni 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 dugout2 Apr 2035
This is not rotation. Ivan Gulko has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Sochi is pretending otherwise.
The dugout2 Apr 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David De La Iglesia, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market2 Apr 2035
Sochi and David Volk are talking past each other
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Ivan Churikov moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Sochi than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Mar 2035
“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 Sochi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Mar 2035
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sochi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market5 Mar 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sochi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Mar 2035
A falling-out at Sochi
Georgy Tikhomirov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets5 Mar 2035
The clock did what CSKA Moscow would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Words at Sochi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Antoni 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.
Transfer targets5 Mar 2035
Sochi asked and Zenit 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 dugout5 Mar 2035
This is not rotation. Ivan Gulko has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Sochi is pretending otherwise.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Umid Sultonov in trouble away from the ground
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Feb 2035
12 matches without a win for Sochi
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Sochi are no longer polite ones.
Market5 Feb 2035
“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 Sochi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Feb 2035
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sochi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad5 Feb 2035
7 saves: David Volk was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings5 Feb 2035
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.88 for the rest of it.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2035
An offer of $810.0K for Ivan Bober
Sochi have gone to CSKA Moscow with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Words exchanged at Sochi
Mateo Antoni 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.
Squad5 Feb 2035
A move Luka Elbakidze would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luka Elbakidze is living that version at Sochi, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad5 Feb 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ivan Churikov and Sochi agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Jan 2035
The small margins put Sochi out
Out, 1‑3 to Spartak Moscow, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market8 Jan 2035
“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 Sochi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match6 Jan 2035
8 matches without a win for Sochi
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Sochi are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout8 Jan 2035
Anton Serov: 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.” Sochi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 Jan 2035
A falling-out at Sochi
David Volk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Words at Sochi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Antoni 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.
Boardroom8 Jan 2035
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Matvey Filipovskiy has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Sochi have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Player ratings8 Jan 2035
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Dec 2034
26 days out for Harry Darling after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sochi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market11 Dec 2034
“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 Sochi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Dec 2034
A falling-out at Sochi
Mateo Antoni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match9 Dec 2034
The goals have deserted Sochi
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sochi can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad11 Dec 2034
A row about effort at Sochi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Nikonorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Dec 2034
A muscle injury sidelines Alexandr Ivankov for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Sochi will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Player ratings11 Dec 2034
18 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.
Market11 Dec 2034
“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.
Boardroom11 Dec 2034
91% of the income goes out in wages at Sochi
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Nov 2034
54 days out for Harry Darling after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sochi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market13 Nov 2034
“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.
Squad13 Nov 2034
A falling-out at Sochi
Mateo Antoni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match11 Nov 2034
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout13 Nov 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Arseny Abdulkhalikov, and the manager let it.
Squad13 Nov 2034
Words at Sochi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Laikin 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.
Market13 Nov 2034
Maxim Laikin is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sochi has been clear about where Maxim Laikin stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market13 Nov 2034
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sochi, another week without a signature from David Volk.
Boardroom13 Nov 2034
Wages swallow 96% of the Sochi 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.