Marked for Savely Ivanov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 May 2029
Savely Ivanov damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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 terraces7 May 2029
Supporters organise against the Krylya Sovetov 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.
Boardroom7 May 2029
Still no name above the door at Krylya Sovetov
Day 36 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad7 May 2029
Alexandr Maximenko 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.
The dugout7 May 2029
The manager makes an example of Yury Gorshkov
“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.
Market7 May 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kirill Stolbov has his answer from Krylya Sovetov; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad7 May 2029
Maxim Vityugov 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.
Squad7 May 2029
Krylya Sovetov will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Loan watch7 May 2029
6 shut-outs in 26 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Nikita Kokarev has been having a lot of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Apr 2029
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Krylya Sovetov lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Krylya Sovetov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Oleinikov 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.
Loan watch30 Apr 2029
27 appearances away from home and 15 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Sergey Bozhin 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 Apr 2029
6 new faces, and Krylya Sovetov 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.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Apr 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Savely Ivanov
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Krylya Sovetov lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market23 Apr 2029
Kirill Stolbov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Krylya Sovetov they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Krylya Sovetov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Krylya Sovetov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Oleinikov 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Krylya Sovetov can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
The manager makes Yury Gorshkov a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Krylya Sovetov. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Apr 2029
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Krylya Sovetov lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad16 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Krylya Sovetov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Khayalethu Mzimela, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Vityugov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
Kirill Stolbov 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 Kirill Stolbov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Loan watch16 Apr 2029
26 appearances at Zlin for an average of 6.18. He is playing, which was the point, but nobody at either club is pretending this is going well.
Loan watch16 Apr 2029
23 starts and a season average of 6.60. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
Loan watch16 Apr 2029
26 appearances and an average of 6.18. The spell is not working as intended, and the option to end it early is on the table.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces9 Apr 2029
The mood at Krylya Sovetov 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Krylya Sovetov lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom9 Apr 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Artem Chaly 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Alexandr Maximenko 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sergey Pesjakov and Krylya Sovetov agree another 1 years.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Ivan Oleinikov 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.
Boardroom9 Apr 2029
8 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Ivan Sergeev
“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.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
A fresh start for Ivan Sergeev under the new man
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Ivan Sergeev has taken the hint, and Krylya Sovetov are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Savely Ivanov damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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 dugout2 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Krylya Sovetov may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Squad2 Apr 2029
A move Freddy Colombo 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. Freddy Colombo is living that version at Krylya Sovetov, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Alexandr Maximenko 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sergey Pesjakov and Krylya Sovetov agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Mar 2029
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Krylya Sovetov lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom26 Mar 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Krylya Sovetov
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market26 Mar 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Krylya Sovetov is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Krylya Sovetov may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Pavel Meleshin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Mar 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Muyiwa Balogun and Krylya Sovetov agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Too much change too quickly at Krylya Sovetov
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
“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.
Market26 Mar 2029
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Vadim Matveenko is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Mar 2029
Savely Ivanov 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.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Krylya Sovetov may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Alexandr Maximenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Mar 2029
A move Muyiwa Balogun 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. Muyiwa Balogun is living that version at Krylya Sovetov, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Ivan Oleinikov 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.
Boardroom19 Mar 2029
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
“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.
Market19 Mar 2029
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Krylya Sovetov have gone and got theirs early.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Yury Gorshkov has written the date down.