Marked for Lev Abdulov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Avangard
21 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Victor Kozyrev
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market27 Sep 2027
“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.
Market27 Sep 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Avangard is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Arthur Baggio 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
0‑1 to Dinamo Vladivostok, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
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From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Avangard
19 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Victor Kozyrev
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market13 Sep 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market13 Sep 2027
Legion come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Avangard did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Avangard counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Avangard now.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Denis Konshin 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Soria 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
It needed Danila Knyazev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Kaluga, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Victor Kozyrev
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market30 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Market30 Aug 2027
Only the photograph left for Lev Abdulov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lev Abdulov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Aug 2027
14 matches without a win for Avangard
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Avangard are no longer polite ones.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Victor Kozyrev
141 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market9 Aug 2027
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match9 Aug 2027
Every point is an argument now for Avangard
Position 6 and 2 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market9 Aug 2027
Chertanovo come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Avangard did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad9 Aug 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
Wages eat 153% of everything Avangard earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ilja Shalimov commits to Avangard for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Jul 2027
The wait goes on for Avangard
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market2 Aug 2027
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Alexey Sukharev 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.
Loan watch2 Aug 2027
“I watch every Avangard game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Yenisey runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryann Fernández 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ilja Shalimov commits to Avangard for another 3 years.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Denis Traigel
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Denis Traigel has come out of that comparison in the side, and Avangard have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Market2 Aug 2027
Chertanovo are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Avangard will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Match31 Jul 2027
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Irtysh came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Jul 2027
11 matches without a win for Avangard
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Avangard are no longer polite ones.
Match17 Jul 2027
11 matches without a goal for Avangard
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 11 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Market19 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Alexey Sukharev 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.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
6 academy players handed senior numbers at Avangard
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
Avangard counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Avangard now.
Market19 Jul 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bogdan Savinov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market19 Jul 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bogdan Bogdanov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market19 Jul 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Lev Abdulov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.