Marked for Leonid Bykov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Oct 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kyzyltash they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
This is not rotation. Vadim Tskhadiashvili has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Kyzyltash is pretending otherwise.
Market16 Oct 2028
Leonid Bykov 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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Kyzyltash
Marek Jaroň 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.
Boardroom16 Oct 2028
No signings allowed at Kyzyltash
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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Antonio Kružić 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.
Boardroom16 Oct 2028
The Kyzyltash debt reaches $2.8M
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.
Market16 Oct 2028
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Kyzyltash money.
Market16 Oct 2028
The name of Maksym Czekała keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kyzyltash say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Jul 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.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
Everything agreed with Dinamo Bryansk, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: CSKA Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match29 Jul 2028
3 matches without a goal for Kyzyltash
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 targets31 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mashuk have kept their man, and Kyzyltash go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Kyzyltash
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Kukanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Jul 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.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Andrei Zaitsev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Kyzyltash is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
Wages eat 118% 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.
In brief
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Squad
Tempers go at Kyzyltash
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Player ratings
Marek Jaroň beats them one at a time
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at CSKA Moscow is saying, and nobody at Kyzyltash is enjoying the guessing.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Kyzyltash
Drilon Mati 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 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Kyzyltash
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Kukanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Spartak Nalchik 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Vologda: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Aleksey Konovalov'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 dugout28 Jun 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mykyta Khimichev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Leonid Bykov 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.
Market28 Jun 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Maksym Czekała’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jun 2027
Semyon Abramov 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Kyzyltash
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Kukanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market14 Jun 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yaroslav Smolnikov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market14 Jun 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Leonid Bykov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market14 Jun 2027
“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.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
Wages eat 85% 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.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Alexandr Usov 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
No place for Gustav Snitt in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Kyzyltash are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Semyon Zimin 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.