Marked for Rinat Abiken
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jun 2029
116 days out for Artem Medvedev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Bryansk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match11 Jun 2029
65 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Market11 Jun 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Bryansk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom11 Jun 2029
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Richard Golovachev has agreed terms with Sochi for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Juan David Ararat 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 Jun 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Solovjov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market11 Jun 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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Dinamo Bryansk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market11 Jun 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Timur Akmurzin signs something — a contract at Dinamo Bryansk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout28 May 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo Bryansk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market28 May 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Richard Golovachev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Bryansk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 May 2029
Juan David Ararat 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 dugout28 May 2029
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Squad28 May 2029
Words at Dinamo Bryansk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Shlenkin 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 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stepan Shishkin, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match14 May 2029
65 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad14 May 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Shlenkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 May 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Bryansk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad14 May 2029
Rinat Abiken 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 Dinamo Bryansk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Richard Golovachev, and the manager let it.
Market14 May 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Timur Akmurzin’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Apr 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Bryansk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Juan David Ararat 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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Ivan Solovjov 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 dugout30 Apr 2029
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The dugout30 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Alil Magomedov
“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.
Boardroom30 Apr 2029
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.
Market30 Apr 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ivan Solovjov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexei Kharlamov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Apr 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Bryansk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Arseny Belov gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Arseny Belov has just signed for Dinamo Bryansk, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Juan David Ararat 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 dugout2 Apr 2029
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The dugout2 Apr 2029
Something was said to Alil Magomedov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Shlenkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
Pavel Satuchin 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 Dinamo Bryansk, and both men came out saying it was fine.