Marked for Bertram Møller
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Jan 2029
Every point is an argument now for Pobeda
Position 12 and 14 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.
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
Pressure builds in the Pobeda boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market1 Jan 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.
Market1 Jan 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pobeda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 Jan 2029
There were 7 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pobeda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Dec 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 Jan 2029
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Pobeda pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Leon Amirkhanyan 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces21 Aug 2028
Anger at Pobeda spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Sergey Kapanzhi damages knee ligaments — 62 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Igor Kurbanov breaks a bone — 137 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 137 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match16 Aug 2028
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Islam Vagabov obliged against Kaluga. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Pobeda.
Market21 Aug 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pobeda can pretend not to have heard.
Market21 Aug 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pobeda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
No sign of nerves from Bertram Møller at 19 — 7.93
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bertram Møller did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Labazan Labazanov is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad21 Aug 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 Pobeda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jun 2028
Sergey Kapanzhi damages knee ligaments — 132 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 132 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.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
Pressure builds in the Pobeda boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market12 Jun 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pobeda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Jun 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 Pobeda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Adam Shikhanmatov 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.