Marked for Alex Ranson
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Jul 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.
Market16 Jul 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Kaluga people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market16 Jul 2029
So close: Amur Balkizov’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Strogino moved on, Amur Balkizov reports back to Kaluga, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad16 Jul 2029
A falling-out at Kaluga
Ilja Grischenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Sergey Chibisov has improved at 29, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Kaluga
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
Ural will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Daniil Kleiner has pre-agreed a move to Kaluga, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Market16 Jul 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Zakhar Chernyshov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Lev Ivanushkin 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
A promise the Kaluga board did not keep
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Alex Ranson
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Boardroom
Kaluga say no to the training-ground money
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Jul 2029
25 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Market9 Jul 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Konovalov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kaluga the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market9 Jul 2029
“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 Kaluga, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Alex Ranson is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Irkutsk have kept their man, and Kaluga go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Tempers go at Kaluga
Lev Ivanushkin 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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Yegor Lipaev 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 dugout9 Jul 2029
“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
Upbeat
Market2 Jul 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kaluga have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
The numbers do not look good at Kaluga
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.
Market2 Jul 2029
Yegor Lipaev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kaluga can pretend not to have heard.
Market2 Jul 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kaluga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Jul 2029
A falling-out at Kaluga
Mykyta Kolesov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Market2 Jul 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Vladislav Konovalov has his answer from Kaluga; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Artem Kuzmin 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.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
4 new boys at the Kaluga academy
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Jun 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.
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Soslan Karginov arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Soslan Karginov has, at Kaluga, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market18 Jun 2029
Add another name to the list: Spartak Kostroma have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Amur Balkizov. The answer from Kaluga has not changed — yet.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words exchanged at Kaluga
Lev Ivanushkin 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 dugout18 Jun 2029
The manager makes an example of Alex Ranson
“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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
A row about effort at Kaluga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krisztian Nikolic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
A loan move for Alexey Dolya is in the works
Kaluga have made the call to Khimik. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
Nobody arrives at Kaluga until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Kaluga this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
Kaluga lift the trophy
The season a town measures the next twenty against. The trophy comes home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
Up they go: Kaluga promoted
Confirmed, mathematical, and a town awake all night. Whatever else the season contained, it finishes a division higher than it started.
Market4 Jun 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Kaluga had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Market4 Jun 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yaroslav Sychev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kaluga the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Jun 2029
A falling-out at Kaluga
Rinat Shakerov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jun 2029
A row about effort at Kaluga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Kuzmin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
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 Ilja Grischenko is on it.
Market4 Jun 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kaluga, another week without a signature from Alex Ranson.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Apr 2029
“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 Kaluga, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market23 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kaluga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Artem Kuzmin 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Tempers go at Kaluga
Amur Balkizov 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.
Boardroom23 Apr 2029
Kaluga can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Artem Kuzmin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kaluga 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.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Gleb Bakharev 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.
Market23 Apr 2029
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Kaluga could ask drops and the wages Vladislav Konovalov can ask rise.
Market23 Apr 2029
Kaluga have made Nikita Kuzin available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Apr 2029
The view from the top for Kaluga
25 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Market16 Apr 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kaluga they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market16 Apr 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Tempers go at Kaluga
Ilja Grischenko 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Kaluga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Kuzmin 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 dugout16 Apr 2029
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.
Market16 Apr 2029
“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.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
Artem Kuzmin 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 Kaluga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market16 Apr 2029
The Nikita Kuzin story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikita Kuzin signs something — a contract at Kaluga or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market26 Mar 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.
Market26 Mar 2029
Only the photograph left for Rinat Shakerov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rinat Shakerov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kaluga the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Mar 2029
A falling-out at Kaluga
Lev Ivanushkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Mar 2029
“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 Kaluga know it.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Kaluga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Lipaev 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.
Boardroom26 Mar 2029
Nobody arrives at Kaluga until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Kaluga this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
Igor Sokolov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Igor Sokolov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
Artem Kuzmin gets picked when it counts
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 Artem Kuzmin is on it.
Market26 Mar 2029
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Kaluga could ask drops and the wages Vladislav Konovalov can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Mar 2029
Yegor Lipaev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kaluga can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 Mar 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kaluga they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Tempers go at Kaluga
Lev Ivanushkin 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Kaluga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Lipaev 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 dugout12 Mar 2029
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 dugout12 Mar 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dmitry Yugaldin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Alex Ranson: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Kaluga will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Market12 Mar 2029
The name of Ilja Grischenko keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kaluga say nothing, which says plenty.
Market12 Mar 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Mar 2029
Nikita Kuzin hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kaluga can pretend not to have heard.
Market5 Mar 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kaluga they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ilja Grischenko commits to Kaluga for another 4 years.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words exchanged at Kaluga
Lev Ivanushkin 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 Mar 2029
The medical room confirms 25 days on the sidelines for Dmitri Kartashov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
The manager makes an example of Alex Ranson
“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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Kaluga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Lipaev 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 Mar 2029
Sergey Chibisov 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.
Market5 Mar 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market29 Jan 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kaluga can pretend not to have heard.
Market29 Jan 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market29 Jan 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kaluga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Jan 2029
45 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Kaluga
Ilja Grischenko 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Artem Kuzmin 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 dugout29 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Alex Ranson
“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.
Market29 Jan 2029
Rodina M are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Kaluga will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
Nobody arrives at Kaluga until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Kaluga this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Jan 2029
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kaluga lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market15 Jan 2029
Amur Balkizov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kaluga can pretend not to have heard.
Market15 Jan 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kaluga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Kaluga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lev Ivanushkin 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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
“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 Kaluga know it.
Squad15 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Kaluga
Amur Balkizov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
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 Ilja Grischenko is on it.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kaluga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market15 Jan 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kaluga, another week without a signature from Alex Ranson.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Dec 2028
Only the photograph left for Yegor Lipaev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yegor Lipaev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kaluga the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Dec 2028
A row about effort at Kaluga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Kuzmin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad18 Dec 2028
A falling-out at Kaluga
Amur Balkizov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Semyon Kuzin: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Kaluga will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout18 Dec 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 dugout18 Dec 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.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
Igor Sokolov 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 Kaluga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market18 Dec 2028
“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.
Market18 Dec 2028
The name of Ilja Grischenko keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kaluga say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market20 Nov 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kaluga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad20 Nov 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 Kaluga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Artem Kuzmin
“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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Kaluga are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Yegor Lipaev 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 dugout20 Nov 2028
Ilja Grischenko has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kaluga 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
Upbeat
Match7 Oct 2028
Nobody wins at Kaluga
19 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad9 Oct 2028
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.
Match4 Oct 2028
The cup run ends for Kaluga
0‑1 against KAMAZ, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market9 Oct 2028
Amur Balkizov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kaluga they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Kaluga can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad9 Oct 2028
A falling-out at Kaluga
Lev Ivanushkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.26, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad9 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Kaluga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Kuzmin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.