Marked for Robert Harris
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Mar 2043
Tempers go at Rotor
Thomas Cordier 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.
Squad30 Mar 2043
Bautista Alonso 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.
Squad30 Mar 2043
The manager makes an example of Robert Harris
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Feb 2043
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rotor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market16 Feb 2043
“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 The request is on a desk at Rotor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Feb 2043
Marko Laimer 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.
Squad16 Feb 2043
Marko Simic 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.
Squad16 Feb 2043
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings16 Feb 2043
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings16 Feb 2043
Defensive actions: 14, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match14 Feb 2043
Point won or two lost for Rotor?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Shinnik? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Player ratings16 Feb 2043
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jan 2043
A knee injury of the worst kind for Denis Pokotylo
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Jan 2043
A fracture rules Stephen Edwards out for 15 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rotor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market5 Jan 2043
Martín López has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rotor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Jan 2043
Daniil Zaitsev: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rotor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Jan 2043
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Rotor will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Match3 Jan 2043
The wait goes on for Rotor
4 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Dec 2042
A knee injury of the worst kind for Denis Pokotylo
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces15 Dec 2042
Anger at Rotor 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.
Match13 Dec 2042
Still nobody has beaten Rotor
The unbeaten run reaches 13. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad15 Dec 2042
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad15 Dec 2042
A fracture rules Stephen Edwards out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rotor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market15 Dec 2042
“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.
Squad15 Dec 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings15 Dec 2042
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match13 Dec 2042
It needed Robert Harris to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Volga, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Dec 2042
A knee injury of the worst kind for Denis Pokotylo
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match6 Dec 2042
Still nobody has beaten Rotor
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market8 Dec 2042
Only the photograph left for Martín López
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Martín López will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rotor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match6 Dec 2042
Rotor make home a hard place to visit
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad8 Dec 2042
Tempers go at Rotor
Thomas Cordier 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.
Squad8 Dec 2042
Words at Rotor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronald Donkor 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.
Squad8 Dec 2042
“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 Rotor know it.
Match6 Dec 2042
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mateo Fernández. 2‑0 against Baltika, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings8 Dec 2042
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Dec 2042
A knee injury of the worst kind for Denis Pokotylo
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad1 Dec 2042
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.
Match29 Nov 2042
11 unbeaten for Rotor
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Rotor did not have in the autumn.
Squad1 Dec 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Dec 2042
Ronald Donkor 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.
Player ratings1 Dec 2042
18 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
In brief
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Robert Harris
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Match
No goals between Rotor and Ufa
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Boardroom
The Rotor production line keeps running
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The terraces
The press have found their man in Lukas Trimmel
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Nov 2042
A knee injury of the worst kind for Denis Pokotylo
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces17 Nov 2042
Anger at Rotor 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.
Squad17 Nov 2042
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match15 Nov 2042
8 unbeaten for Rotor
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Rotor did not have in the autumn.
Squad17 Nov 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Nov 2042
Ronald Donkor 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.
Match15 Nov 2042
It finished 3‑1, and it was Martín López’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rotor.
Player ratings17 Nov 2042
A performance of 8.39 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings17 Nov 2042
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Nov 2042
A knee injury of the worst kind for Denis Pokotylo
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 Nov 2042
Only the photograph left for Martín López
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Martín López will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rotor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings10 Nov 2042
Up for the corner, and Bautista Alonso delivers — 7.46
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Bautista Alonso scored, was marked 7.46, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Player ratings10 Nov 2042
Up for the corner, and Thomas Posch delivers — 7.94
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Thomas Posch scored, was marked 7.94, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Match8 Nov 2042
7 unbeaten for Rotor
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Rotor did not have in the autumn.
Squad10 Nov 2042
A move Marko Laimer would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Marko Laimer is living that version at Rotor, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match8 Nov 2042
It finished 3‑2, and it was Bautista Alonso’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rotor.
Squad10 Nov 2042
Words at Rotor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronald Donkor 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.
Match8 Nov 2042
Rotor make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Nov 2042
A knee injury of the worst kind for Denis Pokotylo
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 Nov 2042
There were 9 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.
Match1 Nov 2042
Mateo Fernández had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and KAMAZ were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings3 Nov 2042
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Nov 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Nov 2042
6 unbeaten for Rotor
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Rotor did not have in the autumn.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Oct 2042
A knee injury of the worst kind for Denis Pokotylo
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces20 Oct 2042
Anger at Rotor 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.
Squad20 Oct 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom20 Oct 2042
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Yefrem Anokhin has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rotor have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad20 Oct 2042
Harry Hogg 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.
Player ratings20 Oct 2042
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad20 Oct 2042
6 new faces, and Rotor are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Match18 Oct 2042
Honours even between Rotor and Shinnik
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market20 Oct 2042
Rotor bring in an old head
Leon Aiba is 38 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Oct 2042
A knee injury of the worst kind for Denis Pokotylo
131 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match1 Oct 2042
Rotor through in the cup
A 2‑1 win over Tyumen, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market6 Oct 2042
“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 ratings6 Oct 2042
Harry Hogg, 35, rolls back the years — 8.01
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad6 Oct 2042
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ronald Donkor and Rotor agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Oct 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings6 Oct 2042
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.
Player ratings6 Oct 2042
Ninety minutes of Martín López at his very best
Marked 8.01. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rotor.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Sep 2042
A knee injury of the worst kind for Denis Pokotylo
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rotor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Sep 2042
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad29 Sep 2042
Tempers go at Rotor
Ronald Donkor 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.
Match27 Sep 2042
A bad afternoon for Rotor against Yenisey
0‑1 to Yenisey, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad29 Sep 2042
“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.
Player ratings29 Sep 2042
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Sep 2042
Denis Pokotylo damages knee ligaments — 145 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 145 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.
The terraces22 Sep 2042
The mood at Rotor 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.
Squad22 Sep 2042
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match20 Sep 2042
Still nobody has beaten Rotor
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad22 Sep 2042
25 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings22 Sep 2042
Robert Harris was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match20 Sep 2042
Rotor hit back inside 3 minutes
Rodina held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Rotor answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Squad22 Sep 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings22 Sep 2042
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Aug 2042
Ronald Donkor damages knee ligaments — 71 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
Player ratings11 Aug 2042
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.65, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market11 Aug 2042
“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 Rotor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Aug 2042
Robert Harris: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rotor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Aug 2042
Tempers go at Rotor
Ronald Donkor 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.
Match9 Aug 2042
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Jul 2042
Ronald Donkor damages knee ligaments — 85 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
The terraces28 Jul 2042
The mood at Rotor 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.
Squad28 Jul 2042
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rotor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market28 Jul 2042
“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 Rotor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Jul 2042
Tempers go at Rotor
Thomas Cordier 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.
Match26 Jul 2042
Rotor come up short against Chaika
Chaika left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings28 Jul 2042
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Jul 2042
The manager makes an example of Yuriy Bolshakov
“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.
Player ratings28 Jul 2042
11 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Jul 2042
Ronald Donkor damages knee ligaments — 92 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
Player ratings21 Jul 2042
Two goals and a mark of 9.09 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad21 Jul 2042
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.
Market21 Jul 2042
“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 Rotor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market21 Jul 2042
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rotor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom21 Jul 2042
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Alexandr Safonov has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad21 Jul 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Jul 2042
A hand in 2 of them from Robert Harris — 7.79
Marked 7.79. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Match19 Jul 2042
Alexandr Safonov among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Alexandr Safonov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Rotor and Akhmat.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Dec 2041
Rotor sink to position 16
4 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad9 Dec 2041
Maxim Butusov breaks a bone — 55 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market9 Dec 2041
Galo Vijande 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 Rotor can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Dec 2041
A one-man rearguard from Galo Vijande
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.
Player ratings9 Dec 2041
Ronald Donkor, 37, rolls back the years — 7.85
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market9 Dec 2041
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexander Kulusevski will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rotor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom9 Dec 2041
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad9 Dec 2041
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rotor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Dec 2041
Words at Rotor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronald Donkor 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.