Marked for Dmitry Chekhov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Kaluga
Ilja Grischenko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daud Daliev, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Zakhar Kravtsov 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 dugout5 Apr 2027
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.
Market5 Apr 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ilja Grischenko’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Loan watch5 Apr 2027
28 starts and an average of 6.60. He went there to play and he is playing, which is the only thing a loan was ever for.
Market5 Apr 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Sergey Iljin may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Squad5 Apr 2027
The coaching staff have set Dmitry Yugaldin something separate to do. Whether it is a weakness being addressed or a strength being sharpened, nobody outside the building will know until it shows up on a Saturday.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kaluga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 228% of everything Kaluga earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Daud Daliev
“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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Kaluga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakhar Kravtsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Gleb Bakharev 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 Gleb Bakharev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market28 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nikita Kuzin’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Aug 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Daniil Konovalov would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Daniil Konovalov is living that version at Kaluga, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Kaluga
Ilja Grischenko 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 Aug 2026
Kaluga asked and KDV Tomsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Kaluga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vyacheslav Dorovskikh 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 terraces10 Aug 2026
At 21 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. German Gerasimov 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
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fyodor Shuvalov 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Georgy Shapovalov 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.