Marked for Maxim Baranov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 Apr 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kolomna can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
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Squad22 Apr 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom22 Apr 2030
The numbers do not look good at Kolomna
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
Mikhail Tikhonov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kolomna 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.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match4 Mar 2030
Kolomna refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 56 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad4 Mar 2030
He is 17, he is averaging 7.06, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
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Market4 Mar 2030
Only the photograph left for Vitaliy Petrov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vitaliy Petrov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kolomna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Mikhail Tikhonov 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 targets4 Mar 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arsenal Tula have kept their man, and Kolomna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
Denis Kurlov gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Denis Kurlov has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Kolomna will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Jan 2030
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kolomna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market21 Jan 2030
“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 Kolomna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Jan 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rauf Novruzov, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
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Squad21 Jan 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ivan Kovrechenkov and Kolomna agree another 3 years.
Boardroom21 Jan 2030
Belts tighten at Kolomna
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 dugout21 Jan 2030
Mikhail Tikhonov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kolomna 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.
Market21 Jan 2030
The name of Mikhail Tikhonov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kolomna say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad24 Dec 2029
Rauf Novruzov damages knee ligaments — 68 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 68 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings24 Dec 2029
A brace, and Vitaliy Petrov takes the afternoon — 8.73
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vitaliy Petrov provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Dec 2029
Marked 8.03 at 16, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match22 Dec 2029
Kolomna cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Match22 Dec 2029
Three points for Kolomna, 3‑1 the final word against Chertanovo in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces24 Dec 2029
He is 20 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.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
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Player ratings24 Dec 2029
Mikhail Tikhonov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Maxim Baranov 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Nikolay Andriyanov gets it from the manager
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Boardroom
Belts tighten at Kolomna