Marked for Mathis Loudière
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market13 Mar 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.
Match13 Mar 2028
Nosta up to position 2
22 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Boardroom13 Mar 2028
The numbers do not look good at Nosta
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Transfer targets13 Mar 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Arseny Vainer 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.
Market13 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Tempers go at Nosta
Mathis Loudière 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 dugout13 Mar 2028
Nikita Rozhkov 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 Nosta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad13 Mar 2028
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
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.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
Wages swallow 97% of the Nosta 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.
Squad24 Jan 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 Nosta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
Nikita Rozhkov 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 Nosta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Nosta told Ahmad Al-Blooshi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout24 Jan 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.
Market24 Jan 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Stanislav Irshev signs something — a contract at Nosta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Nosta will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad24 Jan 2028
The comeback has moved again. The medical staff will not give a new date and the manager has stopped asking for one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Dec 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Nosta
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislav Galkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Nosta
Mathis Loudière 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 dugout6 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.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
Nikita Rozhkov 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 Nosta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Hatim Bentaleb
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match22 Nov 2027
Nosta are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 22 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market22 Nov 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 Nosta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Nosta
Yegor Skichko 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 Nov 2027
The numbers do not look good at Nosta
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout22 Nov 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.
Market22 Nov 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nosta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
A defender's goal wins it for Nosta — 7.80
1 for Maxim Suprun, marked 7.80, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Match16 Oct 2027
6 unbeaten for Nosta
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Nosta did not have in the autumn.
Match16 Oct 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Maxim Suprun. 1‑0 against Dinamo Vladivostok, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout18 Oct 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Vladislav Galkin 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Too much change too quickly at Nosta
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Nosta
Mathis Loudière and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match18 Aug 2027
Nosta out of the cup
Zenit Penza ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Match21 Aug 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Murom, and it could have been more.
Market23 Aug 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 Nosta can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Nosta
Yegor Skichko 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 targets23 Aug 2027
Nosta asked and Saturn said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Alexandr Ageev 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 terraces23 Aug 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Mathis Loudière 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Vladimir Marukhin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.27. 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.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
Yegor Pigaev gets it from the manager
“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.
In brief
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Squad
11 new faces, and Nosta are still learning each other
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Yury Maleev is in the works
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The dugout
Timur Yelagin has his say