Marked for Stephen Bailey
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jan 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 124 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The terraces4 Jan 2038
The mood at Sochi 2 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.
Market4 Jan 2038
Stephen Bailey has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sochi 2 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad4 Jan 2038
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Artem Isik commits to Sochi 2 for another 2 years.
Squad4 Jan 2038
Artem Isik 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.
Squad4 Jan 2038
David Hunter 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces7 Dec 2037
The mood at Sochi 2 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2037
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.49 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market7 Dec 2037
Only the photograph left for Stephen Bailey
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stephen Bailey will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sochi 2 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Dec 2037
Words at Sochi 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Isik 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.
Squad7 Dec 2037
The medical room confirms 17 days on the sidelines for David Hunter, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad7 Dec 2037
A muscle injury sidelines Nikita Khlynov for 17 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Sochi 2 will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces9 Nov 2037
The mood at Sochi 2 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.
Market9 Nov 2037
Stephen Bailey has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sochi 2 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Nov 2037
Kirill Kovalevich 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.
Squad9 Nov 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sochi 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filippo Candido, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Nov 2037
The plan did not have a place for Sadio Dembélé
Nobody at Sochi 2 is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces12 Oct 2037
Anger at Sochi 2 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.
Market12 Oct 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sochi 2 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Artem Isik 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 Sochi 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Artem Isik 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.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Words at Sochi 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aboubacar Haïdara 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.
Squad12 Oct 2037
22 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Feb 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Peter Jackson
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sochi 2 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market23 Feb 2037
“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 Sochi 2, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Feb 2037
The manager makes an example of Artem Isik
“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.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Kirill Kovalevich 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.
Squad23 Feb 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sochi 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings23 Feb 2037
Successful dribbles: 8. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Jan 2037
Patrik Baleja breaks a bone — 41 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Jan 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sochi 2 can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Jan 2037
Kirill Kovalevich 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.
Squad19 Jan 2037
“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 Sochi 2 know it.
Squad19 Jan 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sochi 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market19 Jan 2037
No fee and no drama: Stephen Bailey has signed at Sochi 2, and the wage bill is the only line that moved.