Marked for Matvey Kuznetsov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces11 Dec 2034
The mood at Utsikten has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad11 Dec 2034
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Utsikten lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Words exchanged at Utsikten
Nikita Yavorskiy 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.
Squad11 Dec 2034
A row about effort at Utsikten
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vadym Domantovych was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Dec 2034
“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 Utsikten know it.
Market11 Dec 2034
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
The dugout11 Dec 2034
Viggo Gustavsson is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout11 Dec 2034
Nikita Yavorskiy 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.
Market11 Dec 2034
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Utsikten could get for him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Oct 2034
Christopher Simon damages knee ligaments — 127 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 127 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.
Boardroom2 Oct 2034
Utsikten spell it out for the manager
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. the manager has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match30 Sep 2034
5 matches without a win for Utsikten
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Utsikten are no longer polite ones.
Market2 Oct 2034
Joel Guidetti 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 Utsikten can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom2 Oct 2034
$503.3K from the owner keeps Utsikten afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad2 Oct 2034
Tyron Mensah 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 Oct 2034
148% of the income goes out in wages at Utsikten
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.
Squad2 Oct 2034
Words exchanged at Utsikten
Viktor Tankovic 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Aug 2034
Linus Jansson damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Boardroom7 Aug 2034
Utsikten put the manager on notice
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Match5 Aug 2034
7 matches without a win for Utsikten
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Utsikten are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings7 Aug 2034
Antton Nylund pops up at the right end — 7.93
7.93, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The dugout7 Aug 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Utsikten may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2034
Everything agreed with GAIS, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad7 Aug 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Utsikten this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Aug 2034
The owner puts $445.7K into Utsikten
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2034
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brommapojkarna have kept their man, and Utsikten go back to a list with one name crossed off it.