Marked for Markus Dmitrijev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 2027
Darluis Paz 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad15 Mar 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.
Match13 Mar 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. 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
Crisis
Squad8 Mar 2027
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ergys Kace and FCI Tallinn agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Darluis Paz 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 FCI Tallinn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match6 Mar 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nemanja Ilić, and the manager let it.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market8 Mar 2027
Sergei Hein is 16, and FCI Tallinn have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market8 Mar 2027
Karl Baranov is 15, and FCI Tallinn have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market8 Mar 2027
He is 15, and nobody at FCI Tallinn 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
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Ergys Kace 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FCI Tallinn know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market25 Jan 2027
FCI Tallinn have let the market know Kevin Anderson can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Markus Dmitrijev is not doing himself any favours
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
Ergys Kace 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
34 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Karl Tamm knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Karl Tamm trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.