Marked for Romelu Batshuayi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom13 Jul 2037
No signings allowed at Rodina M
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad13 Jul 2037
Nikita Potapov 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.
Squad13 Jul 2037
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market13 Jul 2037
Rodina M bring in an old head
Jean-Baptiste N'Guessan is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Squad13 Jul 2037
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Rodina M will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad13 Jul 2037
Somebody is after Lev Akulov’s shirt
A new face in his position, and Lev Akulov suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Rodina M have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 May 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Romelu Batshuayi
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rodina M lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad18 May 2037
Elcan Əbilov 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.
Squad18 May 2037
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom11 May 2037
Pressure builds in the Rodina M boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad11 May 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Romelu Batshuayi
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rodina M lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market11 May 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rodina M can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 May 2037
Mikhail Maiboroda 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.
Boardroom11 May 2037
Rodina M cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Market11 May 2037
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Mar 2037
“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 Rodina M, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Mar 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rodina M this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Mar 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lev Akulov commits to Rodina M for another 2 years.
Squad9 Mar 2037
Lyova Mryan gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom9 Mar 2037
The Rodina M debt reaches $5.5M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Market9 Mar 2037
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings15 Sep 2036
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.89, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad15 Sep 2036
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad15 Sep 2036
Elcan Əbilov 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 Sep 2036
Words at Rodina M training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lyova Mryan 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.
Player ratings15 Sep 2036
Marked 8.24 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Boardroom15 Sep 2036
122% of the income goes out in wages at Rodina M
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.
Match13 Sep 2036
Rodina M hit back inside 2 minutes
Kvant held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Rodina M answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Boardroom15 Sep 2036
The Rodina M debt reaches $5.2M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad15 Sep 2036
The manager makes an example of Lev Akulov
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Aug 2036
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Danila Shevchenko has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom4 Aug 2036
Crisis meeting at Rodina M
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad4 Aug 2036
A one-man rearguard from Miha Birsa
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market4 Aug 2036
“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.
Market4 Aug 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rodina M is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad4 Aug 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rodina M this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match2 Aug 2036
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Rodina M and Znamya Truda in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match2 Aug 2036
Znamya Truda left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom4 Aug 2036
$168.2K of the owner's money at Rodina M
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Jun 2036
Aleksei Sorokin damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Market30 Jun 2036
“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 Rodina M, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Jun 2036
Mikhail Maiboroda 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.
Boardroom30 Jun 2036
Rodina M cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad30 Jun 2036
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kyaharkat Danyaro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad30 Jun 2036
When it matters, Lev Akulov plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces19 May 2036
The mood at Rodina M has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad19 May 2036
A fracture rules Boris Knyazev out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rodina M will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 May 2036
“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 Rodina M, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 May 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rodina M this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom19 May 2036
The Rodina M debt reaches $5.1M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad19 May 2036
Nobody at Rodina M 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Mar 2036
“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.
Squad31 Mar 2036
Mikhail Maiboroda 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.
Squad31 Mar 2036
Miha Birsa has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rodina M 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.