Marked for Mark Dudko
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces27 Nov 2028
Supporters organise against the Kyzyltash board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market27 Nov 2028
Mark Dudko hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kyzyltash can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Anar Panaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
Wages eat 186% of everything Kyzyltash earn
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.
Match25 Nov 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Artem Putin left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Borna Cindrić 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Kyzyltash
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakhar Shatov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“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
Uneasy
Market20 Nov 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words exchanged at Kyzyltash
Grzegorz Gulczyński 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Kyzyltash
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Borna Cindrić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
This is not rotation. Dmitri Borisov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Kyzyltash is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom20 Nov 2028
The Kyzyltash debt reaches $3.0M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Kyzyltash know it.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Borna Cindrić 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 Borna Cindrić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Mikhail Anokhin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kyzyltash 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Artem Putin has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
This is not rotation. Ilja Glebov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Kyzyltash is pretending otherwise.
Market3 Apr 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 Kyzyltash can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at Kyzyltash
Anar Panaev 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.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The owner puts $150.2K into Kyzyltash
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Match1 Apr 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Kyzyltash training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Borna Cindrić 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.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Mark Dudko runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kyzyltash have done the hard part with Sibir, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
Kyzyltash asked and Spartak Nalchik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Grzegorz Gulczyński 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
112% of the income goes out in wages at Kyzyltash
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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market6 Sep 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Leonid Egorov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Kyzyltash.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
Alexey Naidenov 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 dugout6 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Leonid Egorov's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mark Dudko, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jul 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The deal with Dinamo St Petersburg is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Kyzyltash
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Grzegorz Gulczyński was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
Wages swallow 134% of the Kyzyltash 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.
The dugout12 Jul 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kyzyltash, another week without a signature from Alexey Naidenov.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Kyzyltash have made the call to Spartak Kostroma. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Torpedo Moscow 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 dugout12 Jul 2027
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 Yaroslav Makarenko is on it.