The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Metallurg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom8 Sep 2031
Metallurg close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Metallurg, another week without a signature from Dmitry Saganovich.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ivan Makarov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Metallurg needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Sultan Al Shamsi is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metallurg can pretend not to have heard.
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 manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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 Sultan Al Shamsi is on it.
“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 Metallurg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Makarov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vitaliy Efimov 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Metallurg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metallurg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Dmitry Savin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Saganovich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ivan Makarov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $4.5M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“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 Metallurg, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
Maxim Vertiev is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nobody at Metallurg 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dmitry Savin signs something — a contract at Metallurg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Saganovich 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.
Emrakh Nabatov 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Orel? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Aleksei Moiseev's mistake
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Metallurg offered $13.0K; Dinamo Makhachkala said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Metallurg asked and Dinamo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Davydov 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.