Marked for Rodion Trifonov
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Yegor Axionov 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 Yegor Axionov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Daniil Goncharov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kosmos 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.
Market29 Mar 2027
The name of Danila Matvevnin keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kosmos say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yegor Tushev and Kosmos agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Kosmos
Vladyslav Hevlych and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yakov Konovalov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rodion Trifonov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Pyotr Goryachev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vasily Rakov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.