Marked for Patrick Kudus
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Nov 2027
Makar Makarov damages knee ligaments — 49 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Maxim Tarasov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Miass have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mironshoh Shonazarov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad22 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Miass this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mironshoh Shonazarov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Al-Zahri has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Torpedo Miass 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yefim Gordeev
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Torpedo Miass lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Jul 2027
Patrick Kudus 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 Torpedo Miass can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Alexey Larin 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Torpedo Miass asked and Tyumen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“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.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
Wages swallow 104% of the Torpedo Miass income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Maxim Tarasov 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 dugout12 Jul 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Torpedo Miass, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Torpedo Miass will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jun 2027
“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 Torpedo Miass, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Vladimir Uljanovskiy 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Torpedo Miass training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Balakhonov 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Home is on Al-Zahri's mind
“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; Torpedo Miass are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
105% of the income goes out in wages at Torpedo Miass
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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Torpedo Miass will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Semyon Cherepanov, and the manager let it.
Market14 Jun 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Grigory Borisenko signs something — a contract at Torpedo Miass or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Torpedo Miass would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Bogdan Rodin has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad7 Jun 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Torpedo Miass have had the benefit of it.
Market7 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yaroslav Tarasov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torpedo Miass the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Alexey Larin in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Miass this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
7 clean sheets and the golden glove for Roman Kovalev
The one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 7 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Semyon Stolbov, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Evgeny Ibragimov 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 dugout7 Jun 2027
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Grigory Borisenko is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
$220.8K taken back off the Torpedo Miass table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at WAFA
Wasiu Jimoh 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
1‑2 to Aduana Stars, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at WAFA training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeffrey Wakaso 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
WAFA take on the side everybody is chasing
Wa All Stars arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A first team debut at 18 for Jeffrey Appiah
Off the academy pitches and into a senior shirt, at 18. The parents in the stand will keep the programme, and so will he.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Jeffrey Wakaso 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 WAFA, and both men came out saying it was fine.