Marked for Edmilson Mendes Da Silva
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 May 2028
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad29 May 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 Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout29 May 2028
This is not rotation. Vasily Serov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Amkar is pretending otherwise.
Squad29 May 2028
A row about effort at Amkar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Novikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market29 May 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Amkar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout29 May 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 May 2028
Tempers go at Amkar
Daniil Agureev 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.
Boardroom22 May 2028
Amkar cannot sign anybody
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.
Squad22 May 2028
Maxim Novikov 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.
Squad22 May 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Amkar know it.
The dugout22 May 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.
Market22 May 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Amkar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 May 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aleksa Stanisavljevic will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Amkar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 May 2028
A falling-out at Amkar
Grigory Zhilkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 May 2028
Maxim Novikov 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.
Boardroom15 May 2028
Wages eat 111% of everything Amkar earn
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 dugout15 May 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.
The dugout15 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vasily Serov, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aleksa Stanisavljevic trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market15 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Emil Gallyamov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad15 May 2028
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Amkar would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yegor Glukhov
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Amkar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Amkar
Daniil Agureev 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.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
Wages eat 139% of everything Amkar earn
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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Amkar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Novikov 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 dugout24 Jan 2028
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 Kirill Burykin is on it.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edmilson Mendes Da Silva, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
The owner puts $80.1K into Amkar
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.
Match6 Nov 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Semyon Abramov
“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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Maxim Novikov 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.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksey Kurlov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. 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 dugout8 Nov 2027
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 Andrey Putilov is on it.
Market8 Nov 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Amkar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jun 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Jun 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Amkar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Amkar
Daniil Agureev 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Boardroom28 Jun 2027
No signings allowed at Amkar
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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Amkar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Matsukatov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Spartak Kostroma: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Kirill Burykin 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 Amkar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Jun 2027
A fracture rules Daniil Agureev out for 57 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Amkar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market21 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Amkar people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market21 Jun 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Amkar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market21 Jun 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 Amkar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market21 Jun 2027
The phone has started ringing about Aleksa Stanisavljevic again, and this time the name on the line is Strogino. Amkar are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Spartak Kostroma: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lev Tolkachev, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Amkar will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jun 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market14 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Amkar
Daniil Agureev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
145% of the income goes out in wages at Amkar
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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Alex Matsukatov 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.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“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.
Market14 Jun 2027
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Market14 Jun 2027
He is 18, and nobody at Amkar signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Edmilson Mendes Da Silva commits to Amkar for another 3 years.