Marked for Marat Kulaev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Jun 2033
Yury Maximov breaks a bone — 19 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market20 Jun 2033
“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 The request is on a desk at Baltika 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Jun 2033
Sergey Vasin gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sergey Vasin has just signed for Baltika 2, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad20 Jun 2033
Words exchanged at Baltika 2
Aziz Gaziev 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.
Market20 Jun 2033
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad20 Jun 2033
Sevastjan Kachura 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 May 2033
Yury Maximov breaks a bone — 47 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 May 2033
Words exchanged at Baltika 2
Aziz Gaziev 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.
Squad23 May 2033
Hugo Granlinger 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 May 2033
Yury Maximov breaks a bone — 54 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 May 2033
Sevastjan Kachura 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.
Squad16 May 2033
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 May 2033
Nikita Satarov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikita Satarov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market16 May 2033
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Kirill Pomeshkin’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market16 May 2033
6 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Baltika 2 could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 May 2033
Yury Maximov breaks a bone — 61 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 May 2033
Aziz Gaziev 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 Baltika 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market9 May 2033
No place for Aziz Gaziev in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Aziz Gaziev has his answer from Baltika 2; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Apr 2033
A fracture rules Yury Maximov out for 75 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Baltika 2 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad25 Apr 2033
Words exchanged at Baltika 2
Aziz Gaziev 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.
Squad25 Apr 2033
A row about effort at Baltika 2
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hugo Granlinger was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Mar 2033
Yury Maximov breaks a bone — 103 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 103 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Mar 2033
“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.
Squad28 Mar 2033
Words exchanged at Baltika 2
Aziz Gaziev 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.
Market28 Mar 2033
The clock does Marat Kulaev’s negotiating for him
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Baltika 2 could ask drops and the wages Marat Kulaev can ask rise.
The dugout28 Mar 2033
Aziz Gaziev has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Aziz Gaziev has written the date down.
Squad28 Mar 2033
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Baltika 2 have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Feb 2033
A fracture rules Yury Maximov out for 131 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Baltika 2 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Feb 2033
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Baltika 2 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market28 Feb 2033
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Arsenal Tula had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market28 Feb 2033
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Baltika 2 can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Feb 2033
Stanislav Antipin 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.
Squad28 Feb 2033
It is the quietest kind of dressing-room problem and the one that lasts longest, because nobody has done anything anyone can be disciplined for. 2 players sit outside all 3 groups entirely, which is the detail that tends to matter.
Boardroom28 Feb 2033
Nobody left the Baltika 2 dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Match26 Feb 2033
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout28 Feb 2033
The manager makes an example of Hugo Granlinger
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Feb 2033
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Baltika 2 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market14 Feb 2033
“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.
Squad14 Feb 2033
Words exchanged at Baltika 2
Emil Maiorov 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 Feb 2033
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Baltika 2 will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout14 Feb 2033
“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.
Looking ahead14 Feb 2033
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nikita Kolesin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Baltika 2 needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout14 Feb 2033
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Baltika 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market14 Feb 2033
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Kirill Nikolaev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout14 Feb 2033
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Jan 2033
“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.
Player ratings31 Jan 2033
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Squad31 Jan 2033
Words at Baltika 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanislav Antipin 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.
Squad31 Jan 2033
3 groups that do not mix, and 2 players belonging to none of them. Nothing here can be fined or dropped, which is why it lasts longer than any row that can.
Match29 Jan 2033
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Looking ahead31 Jan 2033
A test against the best for Baltika 2
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 Dinamo Vologda.
Player ratings31 Jan 2033
Shots: 8, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Market31 Jan 2033
The name of Emil Maiorov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Baltika 2 say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout31 Jan 2033
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Jan 2033
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Jan 2033
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kirill Nikolaev. 2‑0 against Spartak Moscow 2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match22 Jan 2033
Baltika 2 keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad24 Jan 2033
A row about effort at Baltika 2
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stanislav Antipin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings24 Jan 2033
Kirill Nikolaev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings24 Jan 2033
Shots: 16. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
The dugout24 Jan 2033
Marat Kulaev knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Baltika 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout24 Jan 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vsevolod Yeliseev, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead24 Jan 2033
Torpedo Vladimir next, and one man in the Baltika 2 dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Jan 2033
Kosmos left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 Jan 2033
Words at Baltika 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanislav Antipin 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 Jan 2033
Words exchanged at Baltika 2
Stanislav Ruban 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 dugout17 Jan 2033
“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 dugout17 Jan 2033
Marat Kulaev knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Baltika 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings17 Jan 2033
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Squad17 Jan 2033
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
Market17 Jan 2033
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Kirill Nikolaev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market17 Jan 2033
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Baltika 2 money.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings27 Dec 2032
A brace, and Gevork Sarkisyan takes the afternoon — 8.90
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gevork Sarkisyan provided it, and the 8.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad27 Dec 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match25 Dec 2032
Irkutsk made Baltika 2 work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout27 Dec 2032
The manager makes an example of Nikita Satarov
“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.
Boardroom27 Dec 2032
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad27 Dec 2032
Words at Baltika 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanislav Antipin 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 ratings27 Dec 2032
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad27 Dec 2032
At 19 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The dugout27 Dec 2032
Somebody else is better right now than Vsevolod Yeliseev
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Dec 2032
Saturn will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Baltika 2 were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings20 Dec 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Words exchanged at Baltika 2
Emil Maiorov 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.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Stanislav Antipin 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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2032
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
The dugout20 Dec 2032
“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 Dec 2032
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.
Market20 Dec 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Kirill Nikolaev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market20 Dec 2032
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Baltika 2 money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match6 Dec 2032
Every point is an argument now for Baltika 2
Position 13 and 16 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.
Match4 Dec 2032
Three points for Baltika 2, 1‑0 the final word against Chertanovo in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings6 Dec 2032
Marked 8.20 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad6 Dec 2032
Stanislav Antipin 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.
Squad6 Dec 2032
Marat Kulaev makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Looking ahead6 Dec 2032
Baltika 2 take on the side everybody is chasing
Kolomna arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
Squad6 Dec 2032
“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.
Squad6 Dec 2032
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Emil Maiorov has moved up it.
The dugout6 Dec 2032
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Nov 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match27 Nov 2032
Beaten 0‑3 by Zenit 2, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Player ratings29 Nov 2032
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad29 Nov 2032
Nikita Satarov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom29 Nov 2032
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad29 Nov 2032
Words at Baltika 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanislav Antipin 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 dugout29 Nov 2032
“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 dugout29 Nov 2032
Somebody else is better right now than Danil Roslyakov
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout29 Nov 2032
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 Nov 2032
Baltika 2 sink to position 13
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings8 Nov 2032
Gevork Sarkisyan, 33, rolls back the years — 8.18
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.18 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Nikita Kolesin arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nikita Kolesin has, at Baltika 2, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Match6 Nov 2032
Three points for Baltika 2, 2‑0 the final word against Zvezda in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Match6 Nov 2032
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Player ratings8 Nov 2032
Marat Kulaev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings8 Nov 2032
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.12, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Emil Maiorov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Words at Baltika 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanislav Antipin 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
Crisis
Squad1 Nov 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings1 Nov 2032
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match30 Oct 2032
5 matches without a win for Baltika 2
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Baltika 2 are no longer polite ones.
Match30 Oct 2032
Baltika 2 are shipping goals every week
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.
Squad1 Nov 2032
100 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Match30 Oct 2032
Gevork Sarkisyan scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Tver, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad1 Nov 2032
Nikita Satarov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout1 Nov 2032
The manager makes an example of Nikita Satarov
“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.
Squad1 Nov 2032
Stanislav Antipin 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.