Marked for Savely Aristov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Dec 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kvant may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom18 Dec 2028
Kvant counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Kvant now.
The terraces18 Dec 2028
Kvant supporters have found a favourite in Timur Chetoev
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Timur Chetoev 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Oleg Sazonov in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kvant this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
A performance of 8.16 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Jhonesy Vásquez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match16 Dec 2028
A 2‑2 draw with SKA Khabarovsk 2 leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad18 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Semyon Golovin
“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
Nobody at Kvant 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces13 Nov 2028
The mood at Kvant 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.
Match13 Nov 2028
Kvant sink to position 15
6 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Kvant training over how hard people work
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Squad
Tempers go at Kvant
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Squad
Alexandr Zybin knocks on the manager’s door
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Nov 2028
The wait goes on for Kvant
9 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.
Market6 Nov 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Kvant
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Kvant is running low.
The terraces6 Nov 2028
Kvant supporters have found a favourite in Timur Chetoev
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Timur Chetoev 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.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Marked 7.80. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Match4 Nov 2028
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad6 Nov 2028
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Squad6 Nov 2028
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Oct 2028
8 matches without a win for Kvant
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Kvant are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market30 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Ilya Zotkin
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilya Zotkin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kvant the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match28 Oct 2028
Kvant cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad30 Oct 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Kvant are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Kvant training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhonesy Vásquez 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Oct 2028
Kvant taken apart
0‑4 to Dinamo St Petersburg, 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match21 Oct 2028
No end in sight to Kvant's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kvant has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom23 Oct 2028
Kvant counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Kvant now.
Match21 Oct 2028
The goals have deserted Kvant
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Kvant can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Jhonesy Vásquez 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Oleg Sazonov in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kvant this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom23 Oct 2028
Inquest at Kvant
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad23 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrei Pavlyuchenko, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces16 Oct 2028
The mood at Kvant 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.
Match16 Oct 2028
Kvant are in real trouble now
Position 15, 5 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match14 Oct 2028
6 matches without a win for Kvant
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Kvant are no longer polite ones.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Tempers go at Kvant
Oleg Sazonov 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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Kvant told Oleg Sazonov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Apr 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Savely Aristov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kvant have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market10 Apr 2028
Only the photograph left for Ilya Zotkin
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilya Zotkin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kvant the goodbyes have quietly begun.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Jan 2028
Carlos Cruz had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Strogino were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Market17 Jan 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.
Market17 Jan 2028
Only the photograph left for Ilya Zotkin
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilya Zotkin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kvant the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Marked 8.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match15 Jan 2028
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Kvant training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleg Sazonov 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
The team sheet said everything about Victor Drăgoi
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Victor Drăgoi.
Squad17 Jan 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Maksim Morozov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maksim Morozov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Amkar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2027
Alex Matsukatov 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Apr 2027
A fracture rules Nikita Goldobin out for 40 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Amkar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Apr 2027
Maksim Morozov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Amkar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Amkar
Grigory Zhilkin 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.