The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Saturn people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Artem Selyukov 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
The dugout25 Aug 2031
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Saturn they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Timofey Kashitsyn has agreed terms with Rotor for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Saturn were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Saturn know which stage they are at.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stefano Rossoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Saturn, another week without a signature from Dmitry Yefremov.
He is 18, and nobody at Saturn signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
The manager has not finished forgetting Roman Samsonenko's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Saturn have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
In brief
The dugoutÖzcan Kuşçu knocks on the manager's door