71 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FCI Levadia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 The request is on a desk at FCI Levadia, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FCI Levadia 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 FCI Levadia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Tallinna Kalev, and it could have been more.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
A brace, and Frank Liivak takes the afternoon — 8.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Frank Liivak provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FCI Levadia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at FCI Levadia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Jacob Mendy 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.
8 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Andrey Kukhotskovolets has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at FCI Levadia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at FCI Levadia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samir Memišević 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.
FCI Levadia asked and Viimsi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Samuel Chlepko and FCI Levadia agree another 4 years.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. FCI Levadia know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Nobody at FCI Levadia 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.
A season average of 7.27 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. FCI Levadia know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Podstrelov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Joseph Saliste 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.
Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 20-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.
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 FCI Levadia have had the benefit of it.
Karl Andre Vallner 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 Samir Memišević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at FCI Levadia 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; FCI Levadia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Rafael Santos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at FCI Levadia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samir Memišević 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.
FCI Levadia asked and Volta Redonda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Bubacarr Tambedou is on it.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee FCI Levadia could ask drops and the wages Rafael Santos can ask rise.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at FCI Levadia, another week without a signature from Andrey Kukhotskovolets.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FCI Levadia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. FCI Levadia have done the hard part with Operário Ferroviário, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Rafael Santos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at FCI Levadia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Podstrelov 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; FCI Levadia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Bubacarr Tambedou is on it.
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.
Rafael Santos 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 Samir Memišević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 20 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.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Nomme Kalju had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; FCI Levadia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCI Levadia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samir Memišević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dawid Pietruszka and FCI Levadia agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Dawid Pietruszka is 20, and FCI Levadia 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.
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 Frank Liivak is on it.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Flora.
Flora next, and one man in the FCI Levadia dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abu Bakarr Bangura trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
That is the business done at FCI Levadia until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FCI Levadia 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.
“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 FCI Levadia know it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Neman have kept their man, and FCI Levadia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.