Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Olaf Kok obliged against Arsenal Tula. 4‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Torpedo Moscow.
0‑3 to Baltika, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. David Tepsikoev did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Denis Perfilov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Torpedo Moscow have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
At 22 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.
8.17. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsArtem Gonzhurov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow 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 Gleb Shevchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Torpedo Moscow can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
He is 20, and nobody at Torpedo Moscow signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
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 Alexey Kashtanov is on it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Torpedo Moscow are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gleb Shevchenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutKurban Rasulov is still being punished for one mistake
Position 15 and 9 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.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Hazratjon Tursunqulov has just signed for Torpedo Moscow, and for once the answer mattered.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Rostislav Soldatenko 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.
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gleb Shevchenko 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.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Alania people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alania can pretend not to have heard.
Alania had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Volgar, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Makhach Abdulkhamidov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chernomorets have kept their man, and Alania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Batraz Gurtsiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Pavel Kalinichev chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Alania have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Tepsikoev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Nizhniy Novgorod is saying, and nobody at Alania is enjoying the guessing.
$66.0K on the table at Chernomorets. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 Alania, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Akron for Victor Nafikov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Alania had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Volgar, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Makhach Abdulkhamidov 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Alania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batraz Gurtsiev 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Tepsikoev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Kostroma have kept their man, and Alania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Alania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Kuskov 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 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.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Pavel Kalinichev to a room that had heard them before.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Alania people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Tepsikoev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Alania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at SKA Khabarovsk is saying, and nobody at Alania is enjoying the guessing.
Victor Nafikov 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Alania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batraz Gurtsiev 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.
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 David Tepsikoev is on it.
In brief
The dugoutArtur Kozyrev knocks on the manager’s door
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Alania people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Alania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Neftekhimik, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Batraz Gurtsiev 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Alania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Allon Butaev 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.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Alania have made the call to Dinamo Kirov. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Makhach Abdulkhamidov 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.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Alania will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“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 Alania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Batraz Gurtsiev 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Alania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Allon Butaev 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.
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.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Tepsikoev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Alania will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Tepsikoev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Batraz Gurtsiev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Alania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Allon Butaev 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.
“I watch every Alania game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Chelyabinsk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is David Byazrov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
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 David Tepsikoev is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Alania would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alania 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 Alania 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.
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.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Victor Nafikov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Alania will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Pavel Kalinichev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Tepsikoev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Makhach Abdulkhamidov 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Alania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batraz Gurtsiev 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Alan Bagaev's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Victor Nafikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Artur Kuskov 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artur Kozyrev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Makhach Abdulkhamidov signs something — a contract at Alania or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Alania have made Valentin Mitin available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Questions about Artur Kuskov on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Pavel Kalinichev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Alania is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Makhach Abdulkhamidov 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Alania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batraz Gurtsiev 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is David Byazrov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Alania than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
In brief
The dugoutDavid Tepsikoev has become a man the manager trusts
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Alania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Alania will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Alania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batraz Gurtsiev 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 offer from Znamya Truda for Arsen Revazov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Makhach Abdulkhamidov 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 Batraz Gurtsiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alania asked and Rotor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Alania have made the call to Spartak Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Tepsikoev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alania can pretend not to have heard.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Allon Butaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Alania game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Chelyabinsk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutAlan Bagaev without the man who signed him
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rodina M waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Alania is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alania 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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Alania has been clear about where Allon Butaev stands, which is more than many ever get.
Add another name to the list: Kolomna have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Hussain Ali Al-Khalsan. The answer from Alania has not changed — yet.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Tepsikoev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Alania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batraz Gurtsiev 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.
Kevin Tran-Nguyen 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.
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 David Tepsikoev is on it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Pavel Kalinichev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Alania have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
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.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Alania has been clear about where David Tepsikoev stands, which is more than many ever get.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diyar Antar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alania 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 Allon Butaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Alania 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 Alania 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Alania, and 9 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
Nobody at Alania 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artur Kozyrev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Tepsikoev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Batraz Gurtsiev 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Allon Butaev 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
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 David Tepsikoev is on it.
SKA Khabarovsk next, and one man in the Alania dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alania will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alania can pretend not to have heard.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sibir were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Victor Nafikov 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 Batraz Gurtsiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
In brief
Player ratingsBatraz Gurtsiev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alania can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arsen Revazov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Alania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Allon Butaev 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.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Alania know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alania 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 Alania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Alania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batraz Gurtsiev 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.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Victor Nafikov 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.
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.
“I watch every Alania game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sokol runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
5 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.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Batraz Gurtsiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 7, 9 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Alania will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Alania people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Alania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Victor Nafikov 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 name of Sarmat Ogoev has come up in conversations Alania were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Batraz Gurtsiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Alania, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
0‑3 against SKA Khabarovsk, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Angusht waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Alania is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Alania, 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.” Alania have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Leningradets keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The name of David Tepsikoev has come up in conversations Alania were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Alania is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
13 combined actions and 6.86. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
In brief
SquadWords at Alania training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Victor Nafikov
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Alania people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 8.20 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 Alania is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Batraz Gurtsiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Alania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.