Marked for Ignas Cernych
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market13 Aug 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.
Market13 Aug 2029
Artem Kulakov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zenit Penza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad13 Aug 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zenit Penza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match11 Aug 2029
4 matches without a win for Zenit Penza
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Zenit Penza are no longer polite ones.
Squad13 Aug 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 Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match11 Aug 2029
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad13 Aug 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rodion Konstantinov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
Marked 8.26 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom11 Jun 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Zenit Penza
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zenit Penza is running low.
Market11 Jun 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 Zenit Penza can pretend not to have heard.
Market11 Jun 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zenit Penza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Daniil Kashmin 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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
“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; Zenit Penza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom9 Apr 2029
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Zenit Penza now.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Daniil Kashmin 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.
Boardroom9 Apr 2029
113% of the income goes out in wages at Zenit Penza
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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“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; Zenit Penza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bernard Ayew 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Fedor Korotkov
“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
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vlad Bogdanov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Feb 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.
Match3 Feb 2029
Still nobody has beaten Zenit Penza
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
Nikita Kolesin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
Squad5 Feb 2029
11 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Rodion Konstantinov has given nobody the chance.
Squad5 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Raimundo Álvarez, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Feb 2029
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Zenit Penza have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Squad5 Feb 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 Zenit Penza know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces4 Dec 2028
Anger at Zenit Penza 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.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
Vlad Bogdanov has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zenit Penza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market4 Dec 2028
Martin Majer 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 Zenit Penza can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Evgeny Yegorov and Zenit Penza agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Evgeny Yegorov 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.
Match2 Dec 2028
A 3‑1 win over Ryazan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces4 Dec 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikita Kolesin 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 ratings4 Dec 2028
A performance of 8.18 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
A performance of 8.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Aug 2028
Marcis Cauna 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 Zenit Penza can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Artem Kulakov is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad14 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 Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Raimundo Álvarez has improved at 24, 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Arslanov 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.
Market14 Aug 2028
He is 20, and nobody at Zenit Penza signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Aug 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zenit Penza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kirill Puzyrev is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Daniil Kashmin 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Raimundo Álvarez and Zenit Penza agree another 4 years.
The terraces7 Aug 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Rodion Konstantinov 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.
Market7 Aug 2028
He is 19, and nobody at Zenit Penza signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Match5 Aug 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market7 Aug 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Andrei Andreev has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Zenit Penza.