Marked for Arseny Kalinovsky
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces29 Jan 2029
The mood at Chertanovo 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.
Market29 Jan 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Chertanovo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Matvey Melnikov 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.
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Chertanovo now.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Denis Davydov
“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.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
A promise honoured at Chertanovo
Something was said to Matvey Melnikov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matvey Melnikov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market29 Jan 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Denis Davydov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
A month in which every rumour is possible and most of them are nonsense. The manager has a list, the board has a number, and neither is telling the other the whole of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match16 Dec 2028
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Chertanovo and Kolomna in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Matvey Melnikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match16 Dec 2028
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces18 Dec 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Artem Mikhailusov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
“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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniil Konstantinov commits to Chertanovo for another 3 years.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Aleksey Moiseev to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 Dec 2028
Supporters organise against the Chertanovo board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Match2 Dec 2028
0‑3 to Kosmos, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market4 Dec 2028
“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 Chertanovo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vladimir Bartasevich commits to Chertanovo for another 2 years.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Timur Seitov 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.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Chertanovo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matvey Melnikov 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.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Davydov, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Chertanovo dressing room in a hurry
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Squad
Arseny Kalinovsky slips down the pecking order
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Oct 2028
The wait goes on for Chertanovo
18 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Chertanovo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matvey Melnikov 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.
Match21 Oct 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Denis Davydov
“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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Konstantin Berezhnoy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
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.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chertanovo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Chertanovo
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match10 Jul 2028
Every point is an argument now for Chertanovo
Position 13 and 14 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.
Market10 Jul 2028
“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.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Everything agreed with Mashuk, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad10 Jul 2028
Matvey Melnikov 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.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Artem Selyukov 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.
Market10 Jul 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Danila Rakov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.