Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inhulets will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The deal that would have taken Ihnat Pushkutsa to Chornomorets has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Inhulets with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inhulets can pretend not to have heard.
The new man at Inhulets has worked with Vitalii Dubilei before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Inhulets know which stage they are at.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 The request is on a desk at Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gracien Deseri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vitalii Diachenko 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Inhulets know it.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Vitalii Diachenko 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gracien Deseri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The new man at Inhulets has worked with Vitalii Diachenko before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Inhulets will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Probiy in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nikita Simdyankin 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.
KDV Tomsk asked and Rodina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilija Tadić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KDV Tomsk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick King will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KDV Tomsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at KDV Tomsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilija Tadić 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and KDV Tomsk know it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marcello Colletti and KDV Tomsk agree another 3 years.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Juraj Benes is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KDV Tomsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilija Tadić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Ivan Zhdanov 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nikita Simdyankin is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Orenburg 2.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Arseny Lomtev is on it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KDV Tomsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at KDV Tomsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilija Tadić 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
“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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and KDV Tomsk know it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KDV Tomsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
This is not rotation. Andrey Maloletov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at KDV Tomsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at KDV Tomsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilija Tadić 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KDV Tomsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick King will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KDV Tomsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nikita Simdyankin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilija Tadić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nikita Simdyankin. 1‑0 against Ural 2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Fedor Tarasov kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutMárk Szelényi asks for a word with the manager
“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 KDV Tomsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick King will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KDV Tomsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilija Tadić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Arseny Lomtev is on it.
Márk Szelényi, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.78
A mark of 8.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
A first appearance Valery Butusov will want to forget — 5.03
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.03, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Patrick King will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KDV Tomsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nikita Simdyankin 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kirill Makarov and KDV Tomsk agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at KDV Tomsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilija Tadić 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KDV Tomsk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Successful dribbles: 35. 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.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.42 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KDV Tomsk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Marcin Kozłowski 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.
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.