Marked for Markus Schlager
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Oct 2046
Anton Yablonski damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Squad15 Oct 2046
Ondrej Suslov: 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.” Naftan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Oct 2046
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Jul 2045
Mateo Estenoz damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Match24 Jul 2045
Every point is an argument now for Naftan
Position 14 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match22 Jul 2045
No end in sight to Naftan's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Naftan has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Jul 2045
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market24 Jul 2045
“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 The request is on a desk at Naftan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Jul 2045
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naftan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Jul 2045
Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad24 Jul 2045
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Player ratings24 Jul 2045
Defensive actions: 13, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.