The Chaika Courier
Market10 May 2027
Yegor Gulyaev has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chaika they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 May 2027
Tempers go at Chaika
Pavel Maslov 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Lorenzo Maasland 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 dugout10 May 2027
No hiding place for Vitaly Dunay (Karpenko)
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vitaly Dunay (Karpenko), and the manager let it.
The dugout10 May 2027
Dmitry Ivannikov gets picked when it counts
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 Dmitry Ivannikov is on it.
Market10 May 2027
The Tom Bradshaw talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chaika know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes Yegor Ushakov a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Chaika. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout10 May 2027
Aldrit Oshafi 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 Aldrit Oshafi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market10 May 2027
Aldrit Oshafi runs his contract down
5 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Chaika money.
In brief
- Match Nothing left to play for but pride at Chaika
- Squad Aleksandr Kharlamov is out on the grass again
- Loan watch The clock runs down on Nikolay Ischenko at Torpedo Moscow