Marked for Praisegod Okechukwu
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kolomna can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
The deal with Mashuk is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Kolomna
Dmitry Starodub 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.
The dugout28 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
“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 Kolomna know it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Dmitry Khraptsov 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Stavropol: 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
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Market28 Jun 2027
The name of Praisegod Okechukwu keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kolomna say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 May 2027
Mikhail Kanaev breaks a bone — 128 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 128 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 May 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 The request is on a desk at Kolomna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 May 2027
A falling-out at Kolomna
Grzegorz Gulczyński 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
Crisis
Squad3 May 2027
Alexandr Usov breaks a bone — 65 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom3 May 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Zakhar Gerasimov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad3 May 2027
Words exchanged at Kolomna
Dmitry Starodub 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Mikhail Kanaev 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 dugout3 May 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.
Squad3 May 2027
“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 Kolomna know it.
Market3 May 2027
“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.
The dugout3 May 2027
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Grzegorz Gulczyński was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The dugout3 May 2027
Alexandr Usov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Apr 2027
93 days out for Alexandr Usov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kolomna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Zakhar Gerasimov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Grzegorz Gulczyński commits to Kolomna for another 3 years.
Squad5 Apr 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 Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Kanaev 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 dugout5 Apr 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.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mutaalim Magomedov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting German Kazakov's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market5 Apr 2027
Kolomna have made Arseny Yerastov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Mar 2027
Supporters organise against the Kolomna 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kolomna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad1 Mar 2027
53 days out for Daniil Antonenko after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kolomna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Pressure builds in the Kolomna boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Praisegod Okechukwu did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match27 Feb 2027
At last: Kolomna win one
9 matches without a win, and then this, against Irkutsk. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Market1 Mar 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kolomna can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Kolomna close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Zvezda is saying, and nobody at Kolomna is enjoying the guessing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Jan 2027
Mikhail Kanaev damages knee ligaments — 56 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 56 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match16 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Kolomna
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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Kolomna
Dmitry Starodub 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Kolomna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denis Makarov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Arseny Yerastov, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Zakhar Gerasimov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Market18 Jan 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dmitry Khraptsov has his answer from Kolomna; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mikhail Kanaev
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kolomna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Praisegod Okechukwu, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.86
A mark of 7.86 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad11 Jan 2027
German Kazakov is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad11 Jan 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 Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A performance of 8.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match9 Jan 2027
Kolomna caught on 92 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Tver scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Market11 Jan 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kolomna, another week without a signature from Mutaalim Magomedov.
Match9 Jan 2027
Kolomna share the spoils with Tver
A 2‑2 draw with Tver leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 2026
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kolomna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match19 Dec 2026
Nowhere to hide for Kolomna
0‑4 against Torpedo Vladimir, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Kolomna
Dmitry Starodub 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Kolomna dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Zakhar Gerasimov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Beaten 4 times: a bad day for Maxim Mikityuk
2 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
Squad21 Dec 2026
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mikhail Kanaev
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kolomna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Dec 2026
3‑0, and Praisegod Okechukwu took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Kolomna tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Dmitry Starodub 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.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
At 20 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Kolomna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denis Makarov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Zakhar Gerasimov could afford to be generous.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“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
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Mikhail Kanaev damages knee ligaments — 114 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 114 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match21 Nov 2026
Kolomna throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Cherepovets the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Kolomna will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Praisegod Okechukwu, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad23 Nov 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Kolomna
Grzegorz Gulczyński and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Nov 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Cherepovets leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Grzegorz Gulczyński's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Peshkov, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
135 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kolomna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match2 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Kolomna
Position 13 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Kolomna
Dmitry Starodub and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
228% of the income goes out in wages at Kolomna
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.
Match31 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Kolomna against Saturn
0‑1 to Saturn, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Kolomna, and 8 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
Squad
A place in the month's best eleven for Praisegod Okechukwu
-
Player ratings
Dawid Linca beats them one at a time
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Kolomna
Dmitry Starodub 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Mikhail Kanaev 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Zakhar Gerasimov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Kolomna told Denis Makarov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Arseny Yerastov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Kolomna needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Daniil Konovalov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kolomna 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Kolomna are still strangers to each other
11 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Khraptsov, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 20 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Market12 Oct 2026
“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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Dmitry Gusarov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kolomna 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Kolomna have made Yasson Mandzukas available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Denis Klyuev asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 18 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Kolomna
Grzegorz Gulczyński 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Kolomna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Kanaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match3 Oct 2026
Three points for Kolomna, 2‑1 the final word against Zenit 2 in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 232% of everything Kolomna 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.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Kolomna, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with KDV Tomsk; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mikhail Kanaev 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$32.0K was the most the club would pay and Metallurg were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ural have kept their man, and Kolomna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market17 Aug 2026
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Match15 Aug 2026
Torpedo Vladimir left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Kolomna are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market17 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
In brief
-
Squad
7 new faces, and Kolomna are still learning each other
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
-
Player ratings
A day to forget for Rauf Novruzov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Kolomna
A 0‑4 beating by Baltika 2 was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market10 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kolomna have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad10 Aug 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Praisegod Okechukwu and Kolomna agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$32.0K on the table at Khimik. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Kolomna
Mikhail Kanaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Grigory Kryukov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Stepan Semyonov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Denis Lermontov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.