Marked for Maxim Dedelev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Oct 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ostrovets can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Oct 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ostrovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Gleb Krivtsov 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.
Boardroom22 Oct 2029
No signings allowed at Ostrovets
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.
Squad22 Oct 2029
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.
Squad22 Oct 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aleksandr Šurõgin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Jul 2029
Dmitry Smirnov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Neftekhimik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Khizri Khidiev is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Giorgi Kantaria 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.
Market16 Jul 2029
As if he never left: Maxim Dedelev returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Maxim Dedelev is a Neftekhimik player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad16 Jul 2029
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
6 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Neftekhimik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolay Tolstopyatov 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.
Market16 Jul 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Lev Zuev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market16 Jul 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alexandr Pegov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
In brief
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Boardroom
A promise the Neftekhimik board did not keep
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Boardroom
No investment in the facilities at Neftekhimik
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom23 Apr 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Neftekhimik
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Neftekhimik is running low.
Market23 Apr 2029
Dmitry Smirnov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Neftekhimik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Maxim Zaitsev is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market23 Apr 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neftekhimik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Apr 2029
A move Maxim Dedelev would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Maxim Dedelev is living that version at Neftekhimik, and it tends to show in the first month.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Dec 2028
18 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Juan Tineo breaks a bone — 70 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad25 Dec 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 Trujillanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Jorge Páez 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
The medical room confirms 22 days on the sidelines for Henri Bega, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market25 Dec 2028
The name of Steven Pabón keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Trujillanos say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Jun 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Spartak Kostroma may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Daniel Sappa 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.
Market26 Jun 2028
The fee is $78.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Spartak Tambov drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Nikita Supranovich 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
“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.
Market26 Jun 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Đorđe Pantelić signs something — a contract at Spartak Kostroma or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Apr 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 Chaika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Chaika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Sokolov 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Ruslan Chobanov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Chaika 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.
Market10 Apr 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Stanislav Biblyk’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market10 Apr 2028
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Chaika have gone and got theirs early.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market27 Dec 2027
“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 Dnepr Mogilev, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Kirill Kirilenko 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Dnepr Mogilev training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Kasarab 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.
Market27 Dec 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad27 Dec 2027
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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dnepr Mogilev, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aldiiar Ältaev
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Baranovichi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market20 Dec 2027
“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 Baranovichi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Baranovichi may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Timur Pukhov 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 Baranovichi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Baranovichi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vadim Balbukh 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.
Market20 Dec 2027
The name of Artem Petrenko keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Baranovichi say nothing, which says plenty.