Marked for Gleb Volkov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Jul 2030
Position 2, 51 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market8 Jul 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Krylya Sovetov 2 people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market8 Jul 2030
Only the photograph left for Ivan Ignatjev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ivan Ignatjev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Krylya Sovetov 2 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Jul 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Krylya Sovetov 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Muyiwa Balogun 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.
Squad8 Jul 2030
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout8 Jul 2030
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Market8 Jul 2030
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Krylya Sovetov 2 money.
Market8 Jul 2030
The Andrey Tsorn talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Krylya Sovetov 2 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 Apr 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladimir Medved will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Krylya Sovetov 2 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Medved was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Danil Beltyukov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
Denis Adamov 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 Krylya Sovetov 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market22 Apr 2030
The clock does Ivan Ignatjev’s negotiating for him
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Krylya Sovetov 2 could ask drops and the wages Ivan Ignatjev can ask rise.
Market22 Apr 2030
The Artem Radaev story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Artem Radaev signs something — a contract at Krylya Sovetov 2 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Mar 2030
Position 2, 51 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market18 Mar 2030
Only the photograph left for Ivan Ignatjev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ivan Ignatjev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Krylya Sovetov 2 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market18 Mar 2030
Gleb Volkov 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 Krylya Sovetov 2 can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Medved was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market18 Mar 2030
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Danil Beltyukov has his answer from Krylya Sovetov 2; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market18 Mar 2030
The Andrey Tsorn talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Krylya Sovetov 2 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Mar 2030
Alexey Belikov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Krylya Sovetov 2 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Vladimir Medved 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.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Danil Beltyukov 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.
Market11 Mar 2030
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Vladimir Medved has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Krylya Sovetov 2.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
“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 dugout11 Mar 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Krylya Sovetov 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market11 Mar 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Yegor Truntaev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market11 Mar 2030
5 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Krylya Sovetov 2 could get for him.
Squad11 Mar 2030
The training reports on Andrey Tsorn are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Feb 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aron Bjarnason
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Krylya Sovetov 2 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match18 Feb 2030
Position 2 and 51 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market18 Feb 2030
Only the photograph left for Ivan Ignatjev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ivan Ignatjev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Krylya Sovetov 2 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market18 Feb 2030
“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 Krylya Sovetov 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Words at Krylya Sovetov 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Tsorn 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.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Irlan Khugaev 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 dugout18 Feb 2030
“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 Feb 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 Dec 2029
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Yegor Truntaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Andrey Tsorn 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.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
Ninety minutes of Vladimir Medved at his very best
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Krylya Sovetov 2.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vadim Uljanov, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
Timur Bulatsev 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 Krylya Sovetov 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.