“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 The request is on a desk at Chelyabinsk 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 8 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
1 for Tomáš Vychodil, marked 7.27, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Chelyabinsk 2 and KDV Tomsk in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Words at Chelyabinsk 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arseny Salenko 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chelyabinsk 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
At 22 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. Chelyabinsk 2 have a decision that made itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arseny Salenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladimir Kachamin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
0‑6 against Krylya Sovetov 2, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match8 Dec 2029
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Chelyabinsk 2 and Krylya Sovetov 2 in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomáš Vychodil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 5 saves does not settle it either way.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chelyabinsk 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
52 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Murom were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The terraces3 Dec 2029
The mood at Chelyabinsk 2 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.
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Murom had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Chelyabinsk 2 did not stop to explain themselves.
A mark of 7.67 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
7.70, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arseny Salenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 12 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mikhail Chumak trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
SquadA Chelyabinsk 2 teenager takes the young player award
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk 2 can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Half the programme played, position 12, 1 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Mikhail Chumak knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Serdar Dervisoglu may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
49 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. KDV Tomsk had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chelyabinsk 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad22 Oct 2029
A Chelyabinsk 2 teenager takes the young player award
Rok Cerin is 17, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Every debut is a small story about the future: Serdar Dervisoglu, 17 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.