Marked for Savely Simakov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout9 Apr 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market9 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Salyut is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Tempers go at Salyut
Vladislav Zernaev 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Arseny Prokurorov 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 dugout9 Apr 2029
“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.
Boardroom9 Apr 2029
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
“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 dugout9 Apr 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Salyut told Dejan Grujic something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market9 Apr 2029
The name of Alexandr Krikunenko keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Salyut say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Mar 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Salyut can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Arseny Prokurorov 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.
Boardroom19 Mar 2029
Wages swallow 136% of the Salyut income
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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Salyut can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words exchanged at Salyut
Yefrem Afanasyev 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 dugout19 Mar 2029
Sergey Gaiduk 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
Crisis
Match23 Oct 2028
Salyut refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 24 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.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Salyut training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arseny Prokurorov 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.
Match21 Oct 2028
A bad afternoon for Salyut against Strogino
0‑2 to Strogino, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom23 Oct 2028
Salyut cannot sign anybody
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.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Salyut will not try tonight.
Squad23 Oct 2028
A falling-out at Salyut
Yefrem Afanasyev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Sergey Gaiduk 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 Sergey Gaiduk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 May 2028
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Salyut lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad29 May 2028
A season average of 7.15 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Salyut know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Market29 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Salyut is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 May 2028
Arseny Prokurorov 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Tempers go at Salyut
Stepan Inozemtsev 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 dugout29 May 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Salyut, and both men came out saying it was fine.