Marked for Daniil Kondakov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Mar 2028
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zenit may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market6 Mar 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Zenit heard it as anything else.
Squad6 Mar 2028
A falling-out at Zenit
Maxim Glushenkov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Zenit training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Diveev 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 dugout6 Mar 2028
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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
The armband comes off Wendel
Zenit will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Squad6 Mar 2028
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Magomedkhabib Abdusalamov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
Igor Diveev 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 Zenit, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
Zenit asked and Paris Saint-Germain said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market21 Feb 2028
CSKA Moscow come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zenit did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market21 Feb 2028
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Market21 Feb 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zenit they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Zenit
Maxim Glushenkov 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Lyan 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. Lyan has, at Zenit, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Zenit training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ander Barrenetxea 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.
Market21 Feb 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Zenit can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Igor Diveev
“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
Crisis
Match5 Feb 2028
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 16 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Match7 Feb 2028
Full time on the season at Zenit
Position 3 on 67 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Market7 Feb 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chaika waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zenit is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Zenit asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market7 Feb 2028
Orenburg come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zenit did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Zenit offered $2.3M; Dinamo Moscow 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.
Market7 Feb 2028
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Wendel signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Wendel commits to Zenit for another 4 years.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Zenit
Maxim Glushenkov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Jan 2028
Still nobody has beaten Zenit
The unbeaten run reaches 15. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad24 Jan 2028
25 goals and a season average of 7.65. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Zenit
Maxim Glushenkov 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.
Market24 Jan 2028
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Andrey Mostovoy wants continental football; whether Zenit can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Zenit
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ander Barrenetxea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
A performance of 8.20 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luis Chávez, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Marked 6.96 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Match22 Jan 2028
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Zenit had all but put away. Akhmat will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match17 Nov 2027
Zenit through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Alania, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match17 Nov 2027
Dmitry Barkov wins it after the whistle should have gone
112 minutes played. Dmitry Barkov found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Alania went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Match20 Nov 2027
Zenit keep winning on the road
9 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Daniil Kondakov, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Age has not caught Dmitry Barkov yet — 7.90
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Zenit
Maxim Glushenkov 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.
Market22 Nov 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Zenit can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Zenit
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ander Barrenetxea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match20 Nov 2027
Three points for Zenit, 2‑0 the final word against Dinamo Moscow in a contest settled by the finer margins.