Marked for Lev Nikitin
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Kaluga
Ilja Grischenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Gleb Bakharev 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.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
Wages swallow 186% of the Kaluga income
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.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Artem Kuzmin
“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 dugout29 Nov 2027
Gleb Bakharev asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market29 Nov 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Gleb Bakharev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Nov 2027
Kaluga are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 19 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kaluga have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Nov 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 Kaluga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Gleb Bakharev asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Kaluga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lev Nikitin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Amoris Galli
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Nov 2027
Only the photograph left for Amur Balkizov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amur Balkizov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kaluga the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Kaluga
Andrey Putilov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Sergey Krotov 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
Steady
Squad8 Nov 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 Kaluga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Kaluga
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gleb Bakharev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
Belts tighten at Kaluga
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Dragan, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
Lev Ivanushkin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kaluga 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.