11 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Position 9 and 8 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 hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dmitriy Isakov did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roman Yevdokimov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zenit 2 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Druzhba had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Zenit 2 have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
1‑14 to Rostov 2, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
10 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings8 Oct 2035
Roman Yevdokimov, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
15 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zenit 2 and Rostov 2 in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Dmitriy Isakov is the division's best young player this month
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Zenit 2 will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 9 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings1 Oct 2035
Dmitriy Isakov, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 9.07
A mark of 9.07 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.64 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Zenit 2 and Dinamo Makhachkala 2, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Eldar Guseinov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Player ratings24 Sep 2035
Dmitriy Isakov, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.12
A mark of 8.12 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zenit 2 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Dinamo Makhachkala 2 will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Zenit 2 were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Ilja Rodionov 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.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Zenit 2 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Zenit 2 have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Maxim Saveljev had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Zenit 2 have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Zenit 2 will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Zenit 2 has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zenit, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Nobody at Zenit 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.
Position 2, 70 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zenit, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Bamba Dieng is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Siljanov signs something — a contract at Zenit or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Zenit the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
23 appearances at UTA Arad and the goals have stopped going in. Zenit lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zenit, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad2 Apr 2035
5 new faces, and Zenit are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Nobody at Zenit 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.
Position 3, 19 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Orel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Atta Derrick Afriyie has agreed terms with Znamya Truda for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Alex Matsukatov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Orel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Arsentjev 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.
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.
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Orel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Arsentjev 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Zenit have had the benefit of it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zenit they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Tamerlan Musaev 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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then CSKA Moscow scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Valentín Barco 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michael Parker will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zenit the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Spartak Moscow next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Spartak Moscow in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
44 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zenit lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jhon Jhon. 2‑0 against Ural, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings18 Sep 2034
Henrique Carmo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Sergey Pryakhin 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 47 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $483.9K of what Zenit paid for Artem Krutovskikh is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The offer from SKA Khabarovsk for Alexandr Chernikov 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.
Boardroom11 Sep 2034
Deadline passes with 23 signed and 19 gone
That is the business done at Zenit until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Sergey Pryakhin 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zenit can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
In brief
The dugoutMason Greenwood has become a man the manager trusts
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Marvin Çuni’s exile
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Zenit people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zenit is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Zenit heard it as anything else.
Mason Greenwood 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Add another name to the list: Petrolul Ploiești have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Michael Parker. The answer from Zenit has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Arsentjev 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Orel this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
In brief
The dugoutDmitry Dorokhov has become a man the manager trusts
MarketThe clock does Denis Dragan’s negotiating for him
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.
Nobody at Zenit 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.
Mason Greenwood 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zenit they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nobody at Zenit 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zenit, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Mason Greenwood has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zenit is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
10 goals in 19 games at Akhmat Grozny — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Zenit updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jindřich Staněk signs something — a contract at Zenit or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.