Marked for Dmitry Kudryk
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Mar 2029
“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.
Match5 Mar 2029
Position 3, 49 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market5 Mar 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo St Petersburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Vladislav Shepelev 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.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
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.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
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.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Roman Torosyan 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 Dinamo St Petersburg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Dec 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo St Petersburg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo St Petersburg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rizvan Umarov and Dinamo St Petersburg agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Omar Popov 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.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
Omar Popov runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
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.
Match2 Dec 2028
A 2‑1 win over Spartak Tambov, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.71, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.67, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market27 Nov 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo St Petersburg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Nov 2028
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Omar Popov runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market27 Nov 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo St Petersburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Omar Popov 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 Dinamo St Petersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Alexey Baev 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.
Match25 Nov 2028
Znamya Truda left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Rizvan Umarov 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 Rizvan Umarov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market10 Jul 2028
Dmitry Kudryk 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 Dinamo St Petersburg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Omar Popov 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.
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Georgy Makarov 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 Georgy Makarov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
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.
Market3 Jul 2028
The offer from Cherepovets for Jakub Hurny 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.
Market3 Jul 2028
Murad Məmmədov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo St Petersburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Jul 2028
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 St Petersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roman Torosyan, and the manager let it.
Market3 Jul 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo St Petersburg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo St Petersburg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market13 Mar 2028
Murad Məmmədov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo St Petersburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Omar Popov 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 Dinamo St Petersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Ilja Kubyshkin
“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.
Loan watch13 Mar 2028
“I did not go to Chertanovo to sit and watch. I want to come back to Dinamo St Petersburg and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 37 matches say the rest.
Market13 Mar 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo St Petersburg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.