Marked for Ruslan Shapovalov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jun 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo Vladimir can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Torpedo Vladimir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Vyaznikov 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Konstantin Simakov 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
Evgeniy Alymov is 20, and Torpedo Vladimir have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
Daniil Kleiner asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ryan Gnonto, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
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.
Market12 Jun 2028
The Maxim Vafiev story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Vafiev signs something — a contract at Torpedo Vladimir or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Vladimir will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Maxim Gorin 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Konstantin Popov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Maxim Gorin
“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.
Market5 Jun 2028
Jorge Restrepo is 18, and Torpedo Vladimir have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
The manager's exit leaves Maxim Vafiev exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Maxim Vafiev is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
Daniil Kleiner asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom29 May 2028
Pressure builds in the Torpedo Vladimir boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad29 May 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Vladimir will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market29 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Maxim Gorin 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Konstantin Popov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom29 May 2028
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 May 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Torpedo Vladimir will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market22 May 2028
“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 Torpedo Vladimir, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 May 2028
Alimkhan Alimkhanov 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Alexandr Vyaznikov 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.
The dugout22 May 2028
Danil Sobolev knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Danil Sobolev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market22 May 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Torpedo Vladimir know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Torpedo Vladimir may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market19 Jul 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 Torpedo Vladimir can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Torpedo Vladimir had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at KAMAZ, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market19 Jul 2027
The name of Vladislav Kostryukov has come up in conversations Torpedo Vladimir were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad19 Jul 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 Torpedo Vladimir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
$89.0K was the most the club would pay and KAMAZ were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Alexandr Korenblyum 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.