Marked for Danil Simakov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 May 2032
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sevastopol lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market10 May 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sevastopol can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 May 2032
Adam Ďurdík in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2032
Words at Sevastopol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nazar Zubovich 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 dugout10 May 2032
This is not rotation. Danil Simakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Sevastopol is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom10 May 2032
The borrowing at Sevastopol reaches $3.0M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $3.0M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Squad10 May 2032
22 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market10 May 2032
“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 dugout10 May 2032
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Apr 2032
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sevastopol lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market12 Apr 2032
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2032
Ilja Medvedev 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.
Squad12 Apr 2032
Nazar Zubovich 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 dugout12 Apr 2032
“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.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
This is not rotation. Danil Simakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Sevastopol is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom12 Apr 2032
The borrowing at Sevastopol reaches $3.0M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $3.0M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Player ratings12 Apr 2032
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market12 Apr 2032
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sevastopol, another week without a signature from Kirill Zakharov.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Mar 2032
Frederik Gytkjær damages knee ligaments — 83 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
Market15 Mar 2032
“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.
Match13 Mar 2032
The wait goes on for Sevastopol
6 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.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Kristoffer Ødemarksbakken and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Words at Sevastopol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adam Ďurdík 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.
Match13 Mar 2032
0‑1 to PSK Pervorechenskoe, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabriel Xuereb, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Mar 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Frederik Gytkjær
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sevastopol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom8 Mar 2032
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Player ratings8 Mar 2032
A brace, and Danil Simakov takes the afternoon — 8.06
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Danil Simakov provided it, and the 8.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market8 Mar 2032
Dejan Ulmer 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 Sevastopol can pretend not to have heard.
Match6 Mar 2032
The wait goes on for Sevastopol
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.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Adam Ďurdík in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom8 Mar 2032
$186.6K of the owner's money at Sevastopol
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Sevastopol is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Nazar Zubovich 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Mar 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Frederik Gytkjær
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sevastopol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market1 Mar 2032
“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 Sevastopol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Mar 2032
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Sevastopol 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.
Match28 Feb 2032
No end in sight to Sevastopol's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sevastopol has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Adam Ďurdík and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Bryansk have kept their man, and Sevastopol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Words at Sevastopol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nazar Zubovich 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.
Boardroom1 Mar 2032
242% of the income goes out in wages at Sevastopol
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.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Pchelintsev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad5 Jan 2032
7 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.
Market5 Jan 2032
“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 Sevastopol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jan 2032
Adam Ďurdík and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
The owner puts $180.3K into Sevastopol
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.
Squad5 Jan 2032
Nazar Zubovich 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.
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
Wages eat 204% of everything Sevastopol 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.
The terraces5 Jan 2032
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match3 Jan 2032
Three points for Sevastopol, 1‑0 the final word against Neftyanik in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Dec 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.
Player ratings22 Dec 2031
Danil Simakov, 19, steals the show — 7.64
Marked 7.64 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Ivan Pchelintsev 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.
Squad22 Dec 2031
A row about effort at Sevastopol
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nazar Zubovich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces22 Dec 2031
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout22 Dec 2031
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout22 Dec 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Casper Eastwood trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Danil Simakov, 19, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Sevastopol would like this to lead.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Nov 2031
The drought breaks for Sevastopol
23 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Orenburg 2 were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Market24 Nov 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.
Player ratings24 Nov 2031
A brace, and Danil Simakov takes the afternoon — 8.50
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Danil Simakov provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sevastopol may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Adam Ďurdík 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.
Squad24 Nov 2031
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sevastopol can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad24 Nov 2031
A row about effort at Sevastopol
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nazar Zubovich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces24 Nov 2031
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match22 Nov 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Danil Simakov. 2‑0 against Orenburg 2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Oct 2031
The wait goes on for Sevastopol
19 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.
The terraces6 Oct 2031
The mood at Sevastopol has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom6 Oct 2031
The scrutiny sharpens at Sevastopol
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Sevastopol is running low.
Market6 Oct 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 Sevastopol can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Ilja Medvedev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Oct 2031
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Match4 Oct 2031
Danil Simakov scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Druzhba, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Boardroom6 Oct 2031
The owner puts $160.4K into Sevastopol
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Sep 2031
No end in sight to Sevastopol's wait for a win
17 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sevastopol has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Sep 2031
A fracture rules Ivan Pchelintsev out for 15 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sevastopol will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match20 Sep 2031
Beaten 0‑3 by Rostov 2, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad22 Sep 2031
7 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.
Market22 Sep 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 Sevastopol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets22 Sep 2031
Sevastopol had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Chelyabinsk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Ivan Pchelintsev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match20 Sep 2031
3 matches without a goal for Sevastopol
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 targets22 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Aug 2031
14 matches without a win for Sevastopol
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Sevastopol are no longer polite ones.
Squad25 Aug 2031
A fracture rules Ivan Pchelintsev out for 43 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sevastopol will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match20 Aug 2031
Irkutsk go through and Sevastopol go home, 1‑5 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces25 Aug 2031
A cup embarrassment at Irkutsk follows Sevastopol home
1-5. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Market25 Aug 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.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2031
Sevastopol had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Chelyabinsk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match20 Aug 2031
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Sevastopol and Irkutsk in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Ilja Medvedev 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.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Muslim Bammatgereev 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces11 Aug 2031
Supporters organise against the Sevastopol 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.
Match9 Aug 2031
No end in sight to Sevastopol's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sevastopol has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom11 Aug 2031
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Squad11 Aug 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.
Market11 Aug 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.
Match9 Aug 2031
4 matches without a goal for Sevastopol
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Ilja Medvedev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2031
Sevastopol asked and KAMAZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Jun 2031
127 days out for Ivan Pchelintsev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sevastopol will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match2 Jun 2031
20 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
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.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
Emergency meeting at Sevastopol
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.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
This is not rotation. Muslim Bammatgereev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Sevastopol is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
$147.8K from the owner keeps Sevastopol 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.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Words at Sevastopol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muslim Bammatgereev 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.
Market2 Jun 2031
He is 19, and nobody at Sevastopol signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.