Marked for Arseny Chkalov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with Rodina, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Alania have kept their man, and Kolomna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Kolomna
Rauf Novruzov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market30 Aug 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fedot Guryev 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.
Market30 Aug 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Evgeniy Gribov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market30 Aug 2027
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Market30 Aug 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad30 Aug 2027
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Kolomna are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
Denis Klyuev 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Kolomna
Rauf Novruzov 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bogdan Pyankov 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
The medical room confirms 30 days on the sidelines for German Kazakov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danil Yelagin 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.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yaroslav Kolesnichenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Feb 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.
Market15 Feb 2027
Kolomna say no — this time
The offer from Znamya Truda for Arseny Chkalov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Kolomna
Mikhail Kanaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Alexei Emelyanov 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.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Tyumen have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to Rotor: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
A loan move for Yury Maleev is in the works
Kolomna have made the call to Ural. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Akron have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitriy Khrenov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Feb 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 Kolomna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match30 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Kolomna
6 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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
$630.0K on the table at Yenisey. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Mikhail Kanaev 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Kolomna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laurent Mignolet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“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.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Artyom Mamaev after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
A loan move for Vadim Shilov is in the works
Kolomna have made the call to Zenit. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jan 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 Kolomna can pretend not to have heard.
Match16 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Kolomna
4 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Kolomna
Mikhail Kanaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Laurent Mignolet 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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Marked 7.88. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Kolomna deserved better, and so did he.
Match16 Jan 2027
It needed Laurent Mignolet to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Chertanovo, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Jan 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.
Squad11 Jan 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 Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexei Emelyanov and Kolomna agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Laurent Mignolet 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Arseniy Gromov 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Arseny Chkalov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Match9 Jan 2027
Zenit 2 left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.