Marked for Marek Sorga
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Jun 2028
Marek Sorga 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 Ryazan can pretend not to have heard.
Market26 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kirill Nesterov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ryazan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Jun 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 Ryazan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jun 2028
German Parfenov 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.
Market26 Jun 2028
Legion are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Ryazan will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market26 Jun 2028
He is 20, and nobody at Ryazan signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom22 May 2028
Pressure builds in the Ryazan boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market22 May 2028
Only the photograph left for Artem Yanin
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Yanin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ryazan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 May 2028
Tempers go at Ryazan
Svyatoslav Tses' 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Joaquín Gómez
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ryazan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad20 Mar 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 Ryazan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom20 Mar 2028
Wages eat 146% of everything Ryazan earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Joaquín Gómez
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ryazan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Yakov Chaykovsky has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Ryazan can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market6 Mar 2028
Joaquín Gómez 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 Ryazan can pretend not to have heard.
Market6 Mar 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kirill Nesterov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ryazan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Evgeny Yevgenjev and Ryazan agree another 4 years.
Squad6 Mar 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 Ryazan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Joaquín Gómez
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ryazan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market14 Feb 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ryazan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Ryazan
Svyatoslav Tses' 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Rodrigo Ruiz
“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.
Market14 Feb 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Ryazan will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Market14 Feb 2028
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Aug 2027
Every point is an argument now for FCI Tallinn
Position 8 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
Anger at FCI Tallinn 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.
Market30 Aug 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 FCI Tallinn, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Aug 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 FCI Tallinn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Martin Teniste for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. FCI Tallinn will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Georgi Ventsislavov, and the manager let it.