Marked for Maxim Kondakov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Nov 2032
“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.
Squad8 Nov 2032
A falling-out at Salyut
Vladislav Zernaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match6 Nov 2032
0‑1 to Spartak Tambov, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout8 Nov 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Kondakov, and the manager let it.
Market8 Nov 2032
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Salyut, another week without a signature from Maxim Kondakov.
The dugout8 Nov 2032
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout8 Nov 2032
Ilja Vinnikov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Salyut 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.
Player ratings8 Nov 2032
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Squad8 Nov 2032
No place for Gustavo Enciso in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Salyut are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings1 Nov 2032
A brace, and Zakhar Terpugov takes the afternoon — 9.02
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zakhar Terpugov provided it, and the 9.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match30 Oct 2032
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Znamya Truda spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Squad1 Nov 2032
Words exchanged at Salyut
Vladislav Zernaev 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.
Match30 Oct 2032
Three points for Salyut, 3‑2 the final word against Znamya Truda in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Boardroom1 Nov 2032
Wages swallow 249% of the Salyut income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The terraces1 Nov 2032
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad1 Nov 2032
This league is too small for Maxim Kondakov
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Salyut will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market1 Nov 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad1 Nov 2032
The formation has left Jhon Velásquez behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Salyut will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Feb 2032
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sevastopol waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Yenisey is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Danila Knyazev gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Danila Knyazev has just signed for Yenisey, and for once the answer mattered.
Market16 Feb 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Yenisey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market16 Feb 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Yenisey can pretend not to have heard.
Market16 Feb 2032
Cherepovets come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Yenisey did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Words exchanged at Yenisey
Roman Kopylov 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.
Transfer targets16 Feb 2032
Yenisey asked and Dinamo Makhachkala said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Danila Knyazev 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.
Boardroom16 Feb 2032
No signings allowed at Yenisey
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Dec 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Magne Kristensen
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Yenisey lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market22 Dec 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Yenisey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Vladimir Savić 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 Dec 2031
Yenisey 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.
The dugout22 Dec 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Kondakov, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout22 Dec 2031
A promise honoured at Yenisey
Something was said to Nikita Chugunov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad22 Dec 2031
A row about effort at Yenisey
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stepan Vavilov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch22 Dec 2031
10 appearances away from home and 6 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 Dec 2031
Full time on the season at Yenisey
Position 5 on 22 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.
Match6 Dec 2031
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Mashuk spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Market8 Dec 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Yenisey they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Dec 2031
A falling-out at Yenisey
Nikita Chugunov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match6 Dec 2031
Mashuk made Yenisey work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Boardroom8 Dec 2031
The owner puts $1.2M into Yenisey
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.
Squad8 Dec 2031
A row about effort at Yenisey
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Magne Kristensen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces8 Dec 2031
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Evgeni Abakumov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Boardroom8 Dec 2031
Yenisey are $37.4M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Dec 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Yenisey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market1 Dec 2031
“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 Yenisey, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Dec 2031
Pressure builds in the Yenisey boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Yenisey have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Roman Kopylov 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.
Boardroom1 Dec 2031
152% of the income goes out in wages at Yenisey
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.
Match29 Nov 2031
0‑2 to Baltika 2, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 Dec 2031
A row about effort at Yenisey
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilja Khatuntsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout24 Nov 2031
Maxim Kondakov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Yenisey have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market24 Nov 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Serafim Grozovskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Yenisey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Vladimir Savić 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.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Magne Kristensen 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.
Boardroom24 Nov 2031
No signings allowed at Yenisey
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.
Squad24 Nov 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stepan Vavilov and Yenisey agree another 3 years.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Yenisey are still strangers to each other
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Player ratings24 Nov 2031
Nobody on the pitch touched Denis Rubanov
7.73, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Yenisey had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Market24 Nov 2031
He is 19, and nobody at Yenisey signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Nov 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Yenisey they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Nov 2031
A falling-out at Yenisey
Vladimir Savić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces10 Nov 2031
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match8 Nov 2031
It finished 2‑0, and it was Evgeni Abakumov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Yenisey.
Match8 Nov 2031
The drought breaks for Yenisey
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Alania were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad10 Nov 2031
Ilja Khatuntsev 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.
Boardroom10 Nov 2031
The Yenisey debt reaches $37.8M
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.
The dugout10 Nov 2031
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Vladimir Savić will call it something else in private.
The dugout10 Nov 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Nov 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Islam-Bek Gubzhokov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Yenisey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market3 Nov 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Yenisey can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Boardroom3 Nov 2031
The scrutiny sharpens at Yenisey
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Yenisey is running low.
The dugout3 Nov 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Yenisey may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match1 Nov 2031
The wait goes on for Yenisey
5 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.
Boardroom3 Nov 2031
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Islam-Bek Gubzhokov has agreed terms with Nizhniy Novgorod for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Words exchanged at Yenisey
Vladimir Savić 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.
Boardroom3 Nov 2031
The owner puts $1.2M into Yenisey
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Oct 2031
Chastening afternoon for Yenisey
A 0‑4 beating by Zarya Lugansk was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match1 Oct 2031
Yenisey out of the cup
Dinamo Bryansk ended it 0‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The terraces6 Oct 2031
0-3. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Market6 Oct 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luke Gauche-Fornoni will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Yenisey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Roman Kopylov 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.
Boardroom6 Oct 2031
The owner puts $1.2M into Yenisey
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.
Squad6 Oct 2031
A row about effort at Yenisey
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Magne Kristensen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom6 Oct 2031
141% of the income goes out in wages at Yenisey
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.
Loan watch6 Oct 2031
Artur Avagumyan: I did not sign for Yenisey to play for other people
“Every summer it is another club, another set of team-mates, another manager to convince. I have done all that. Now I want a pre-season at Yenisey and a proper look at me.” He remains Spartak Moscow’s player until the spell runs out — but the argument is with the club that owns him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Aug 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Yenisey people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market25 Aug 2031
“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.
Market25 Aug 2031
Sarp Kaçar has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Yenisey they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match23 Aug 2031
No end in sight to Yenisey's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Yenisey has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad25 Aug 2031
A falling-out at Yenisey
Roman Kopylov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Words at Yenisey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladis Emmersón 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.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sochi have kept their man, and Yenisey go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match23 Aug 2031
Yenisey rescue it on 90 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Alania had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Market25 Aug 2031
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Maxim Kondakov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Yenisey.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces28 Jul 2031
Supporters organise against the Yenisey 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.
Market28 Jul 2031
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sibir had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market28 Jul 2031
“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 Yenisey, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Jul 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Yenisey have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad28 Jul 2031
A falling-out at Yenisey
Roman Kopylov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jul 2031
A row about effort at Yenisey
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladis Emmersón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Baltika have kept their man, and Yenisey go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market28 Jul 2031
The name of Luke Gauche-Fornoni has come up in conversations Yenisey were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match26 Jul 2031
Zarya Lugansk made Yenisey work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.