Marked for Emil Ganeev
From our football correspondent
Triumph
The dugout17 Sep 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kaluga may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market17 Sep 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.
Match15 Sep 2029
Kaluga cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at Kaluga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Yugaldin 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.
Match15 Sep 2029
Three points for Kaluga, 2‑0 the final word against Avangard in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market17 Sep 2029
The phone has started ringing about Yuri Martynov again, and this time the name on the line is Irkutsk. Kaluga are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Ninety minutes of Igor Sokolov at his very best
Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kaluga.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Dmitry Yugaldin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words exchanged at Kaluga
Tommaso Dennis Vergato 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.
In brief
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The dugout
Emil Ganeev gets it from the manager
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Squad
9 new faces, and Kaluga are still learning each other
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The dugout
Yakov Yelagin: “That is the standard”
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Sep 2029
The run at home goes on for Kaluga
23 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match1 Sep 2029
3‑0, and Dmitry Yugaldin took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Kaluga tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
A brace, and Dmitry Yugaldin takes the afternoon — 8.14
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dmitry Yugaldin provided it, and the 8.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market3 Sep 2029
Callum Lewis 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 Kaluga can pretend not to have heard.
Match1 Sep 2029
Still nobody has beaten Kaluga
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Dmitry Yugaldin 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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
A falling-out at Kaluga
Emil Ganeev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Daud Daliev reaches 200 appearances
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
Ninety minutes of Ilja Grischenko at his very best
Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kaluga.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces24 Jan 2028
The mood at Strogino has turned into something else
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.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Strogino
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Strogino is running low.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 Jan 2028
“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 ratings24 Jan 2028
Kirill Alyoshin, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match22 Jan 2028
The wait goes on for Strogino
4 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Fedor Starostin 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.
Match22 Jan 2028
Kirill Alyoshin scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Salyut, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
In brief
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Squad
A row about effort at Strogino
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
No hiding place for Fedor Bulgakov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces27 Dec 2027
Supporters organise against the Strogino board
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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Strogino
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market27 Dec 2027
Emil Ganeev 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 Strogino can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.44 for the rest of it.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Strogino
Vladislav Saushkin 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Strogino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Muldarov 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.
Match25 Dec 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Metallurg leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Nov 2027
No end in sight to Strogino's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Strogino has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Sergey Guzyuk, 21, steals the show — 8.17
Marked 8.17 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market8 Nov 2027
Emil Ganeev 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 Strogino can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad8 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Strogino
Fedor Starostin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Strogino
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislav Saushkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces8 Nov 2027
At 21 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.
Match6 Nov 2027
A 2‑2 draw with Arsenal Tula 2 leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
In brief
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Player ratings
Innokentiy Lunev beats them one at a time
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Emil Ganeev
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict