The Fakel Courier
Match12 Jun 2028
Fakel are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 62 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Clayton Sampaio 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Egor Kuznetsov for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Fakel will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad12 Jun 2028
The decline has begun for Mihai Leca
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Fakel is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Tai Primc in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
Mutalip Alibekov gets it from the manager
“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.
In brief
- The dugout When it matters, Nikolay Giorgobiani plays
- The dugout Ilja Vasin knocks on the manager's door
- Boardroom Fakel board back the manager