Marked for Dmitriy Mikheev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 May 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kirill Larionov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nosta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market14 May 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nosta can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 May 2029
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.
Boardroom14 May 2029
166% of the income goes out in wages at Nosta
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.
Squad14 May 2029
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.
Squad14 May 2029
Nerves in the Nosta squad
Max Metcalfe has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces30 Apr 2029
The mood at Nosta has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market30 Apr 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nosta can pretend not to have heard.
Market30 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nosta is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Apr 2029
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.
Boardroom30 Apr 2029
No signings allowed at Nosta
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad30 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Dmitry Miller
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nosta is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market16 Apr 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nosta can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Apr 2029
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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Kirill Larionov 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.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
Wages eat 139% of everything Nosta 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Mar 2029
Nosta are in real trouble now
Position 11, 9 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
A fracture rules Ivan Gavrilov out for 18 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.
Market12 Mar 2029
“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.
Market12 Mar 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nosta is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Tempers go at Nosta
Anatoly Anisimov 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vladislav Galkin and Nosta agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Feb 2029
Nosta are in real trouble now
Position 11, 9 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
A fracture rules Ivan Gavrilov out for 46 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.
Market12 Feb 2029
“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 Nosta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market12 Feb 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rodrigo Vicente will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nosta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Tempers go at Nosta
Anatoly Anisimov 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.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
Nosta are $5.3M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.