Marked for Maksim Chistov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Nov 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Dinamo Kirov, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Lauk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
331% of the income goes out in wages at Dinamo Kirov
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Kirov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Something was said to Ivan Veselkov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“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 dugout30 Nov 2026
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 Roman Polkovnikov is on it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Evgeny Ignatovich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market30 Nov 2026
Maxim Lauk linked with a move away
The name of Maxim Lauk keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Dinamo Kirov say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Nov 2026
Position 10, 11 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Kirov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Nov 2026
0‑1 to Sibir, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Fedor Yefremov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Dinamo Kirov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Kalinov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Dinamo Kirov lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Spartak Tambov, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match22 Aug 2026
2 behind and going nowhere, until Bilal Bilalov decided otherwise. Alania had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Match19 Aug 2026
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Spartak Tambov will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.94 for the rest of it.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Vladimir Zadiraka has come up in conversations Dinamo Kirov were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Alexandr Chizh, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 3‑2 win over Alania, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Roman Polkovnikov 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.