The Chaika Courier
Squad7 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yuri Martynov
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chaika lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Nobody could get near Artem Sokolov
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The Chaika board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Chaika
Maxim Shnaptsev 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 Feb 2028
Cristian Barsacchi gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cristian Barsacchi has just signed for Chaika, and for once the answer mattered.
Match5 Feb 2028
A bad afternoon for Chaika against Dinamo Makhachkala
0‑1 to Dinamo Makhachkala, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market7 Feb 2028
Chaika sign Cristian Barsacchi, one for the future
Cristian Barsacchi is 19, and Chaika 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.
Market7 Feb 2028
Chaika sign Karol Mets, one for the future
Karol Mets is 18, and Chaika 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Semyon Fadeev named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Semyon Fadeev is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
- Boardroom Chaika counting the cost
- Market The Stanislav Biblyk talk will not go away
- Market Yegor Gulyaev leaves for nothing