Marked for Nicholas Evans
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Jun 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Joaquín Molina
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pacos de Ferreira lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Jun 2043
Veljko Radosavljević 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.
Market15 Jun 2043
Alverca pay $260.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad15 Jun 2043
George Pratt 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.
Squad15 Jun 2043
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Karl Svensson and Pacos de Ferreira agree another 4 years.
Market15 Jun 2043
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Nicholas Evans arrives at Pacos de Ferreira with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom25 Nov 2041
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Dinamo Barnaul
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market25 Nov 2041
“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 Barnaul can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Nov 2041
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
Upbeat
Boardroom28 Oct 2041
Pressure builds in the Dinamo Barnaul boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market28 Oct 2041
“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.
Squad28 Oct 2041
Danil Roslyakov 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.
Squad28 Oct 2041
The manager makes an example of Vadim Faleev
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad28 Oct 2041
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.
Squad28 Oct 2041
Words at Dinamo Barnaul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rinat Kankulov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Sep 2041
There were 7 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.
Boardroom30 Sep 2041
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Dinamo Barnaul is running low.
Market30 Sep 2041
“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 Barnaul, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Sep 2041
“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 Barnaul know it.
Squad30 Sep 2041
Elnur Khalygov 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 terraces30 Sep 2041
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Matteo Basile 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.
Player ratings30 Sep 2041
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Sep 2041
Words at Dinamo Barnaul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rinat Kankulov 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 ratings30 Sep 2041
A defender's afternoon for Artem Ananjin
Defensive actions: 14. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.