Marked for Tikhon Abdulov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Aug 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andrey Trofimov
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Textilschik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings12 Aug 2030
Tikhon Abdulov, 16, plays like he has been here for years — 8.23
A mark of 8.23 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 16-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market12 Aug 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Volna keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Match10 Aug 2030
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Sibir. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Amkar have kept their man, and Textilschik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces12 Aug 2030
At 16 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.
Match10 Aug 2030
A 2‑0 win over Sibir, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Georgy Zheleznov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
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.
Market7 Jan 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
$252.9K of the owner's money at Textilschik
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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrey Yevdokimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
No signings allowed at Textilschik
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.
The dugout7 Jan 2030
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 dugout7 Jan 2030
Denis Sabusov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Denis Sabusov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Aug 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andrey Trofimov
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Textilschik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
Tikhon Abdulov could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.26
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.26, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
Marked 8.33 at 17, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market20 Aug 2029
“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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Ilja Klementjev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
The terraces20 Aug 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Artyom Cherepanov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Feb 2029
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sergey Rybakov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market12 Feb 2029
“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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrey Yevdokimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2029
Textilschik asked and Salyut said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market12 Feb 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Tikhon Abdulov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market12 Feb 2029
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yuriy Melnikov 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.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
“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 dugout12 Feb 2029
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.