Marked for Savely Putin
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 May 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.
Squad8 May 2028
He is 20, he is averaging 7.20, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad8 May 2028
Words exchanged at Nosta
Stanislav Irshev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Boardroom8 May 2028
Nosta release $42.7K for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
The dugout8 May 2028
Abdulla Mohamed has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Nosta 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 dugout8 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Danil Batyrshin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market8 May 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Arseny Vainer signs something — a contract at Nosta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Match8 May 2028
Continental football is in reach for Nosta
41 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Squad8 May 2028
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Nosta would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
A fracture rules Stanislav Irshev out for 23 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nosta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad3 May 2027
A row about effort at Nosta
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Boiko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 May 2027
A falling-out at Nosta
Daniil Antonenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout3 May 2027
“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 dugout3 May 2027
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.
The dugout3 May 2027
Arseny Vainer knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nosta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
81 days out for Stanislav Irshev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nosta will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets8 Mar 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Nosta
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Boiko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Mar 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 Nosta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Arseny Vainer knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nosta, and both men came out saying it was fine.