Marked for Valery Yakovlev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Sep 2031
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market1 Sep 2031
“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.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Dinamo Kirov
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match30 Aug 2031
No end in sight to Dinamo Kirov's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Dinamo Kirov has to find a result from somewhere.
Match30 Aug 2031
3 matches without a goal for Dinamo Kirov
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets1 Sep 2031
Dinamo Kirov asked and Amkar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match30 Aug 2031
No clean sheets in sight for Dinamo Kirov
4 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.
Match30 Aug 2031
Volna left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match1 Sep 2031
Position 7, 5 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Aug 2031
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market4 Aug 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Kirov can pretend not to have heard.
Match2 Aug 2031
5 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.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
$316.0K from the owner keeps Dinamo Kirov afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Match2 Aug 2031
3 matches without a goal for Dinamo Kirov
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets4 Aug 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Baltika have kept their man, and Dinamo Kirov go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match2 Aug 2031
0‑1 to Irkutsk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Vlad Kolmakov is the month’s best young player
At 17 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Dinamo Kirov will try not to make too much of it.
Squad4 Aug 2031
“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 Dinamo Kirov know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
Relegation confirmed for Dinamo Kirov
The arithmetic is finished and so is the season. A hard summer starts early, and next year’s fixture list will read like a different sport.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Dinamo Kirov can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Market7 Jul 2031
“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 Dinamo Kirov, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
$315.3K from the owner keeps Dinamo Kirov afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout7 Jul 2031
“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.
Market7 Jul 2031
“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.
The dugout7 Jul 2031
The manager's exit leaves Arseny Lomtev exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Arseny Lomtev is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Jun 2031
Every point is an argument now for Dinamo Kirov
Position 9 and 15 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.
Market9 Jun 2031
“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 Dinamo Kirov, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Talgat Logvinenko has just signed for Dinamo Kirov, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad9 Jun 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrea Chukanov and Dinamo Kirov agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Nikita Poberezhny 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 Jun 2031
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Kirov can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
Arseny Lomtev 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 Arseny Lomtev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Amit Melikson, and the manager let it.
Market9 Jun 2031
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Talgat Logvinenko arrives at Dinamo Kirov with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Dinamo Kirov can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Market2 Jun 2031
“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.
Squad2 Jun 2031
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 Dinamo Kirov have had the benefit of it.
Squad2 Jun 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andrea Chukanov commits to Dinamo Kirov for another 2 years.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
$319.0K from the owner keeps Dinamo Kirov afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
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.
Squad2 Jun 2031
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Kirov can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
The manager's exit leaves Andrea Chukanov exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Andrea Chukanov is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces28 Apr 2031
Anger at Dinamo Kirov spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market28 Apr 2031
“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.
Boardroom28 Apr 2031
The borrowing at Dinamo Kirov reaches $7.9M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $7.9M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Vahid Karimi 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.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pavel Zemskov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
Pyotr Pronin 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.