Marked for Viktor Mikheev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 May 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tomáš Pipíška
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KDV Tomsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market13 May 2030
Ori Dabbur 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 KDV Tomsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 May 2030
Ivan Selemenev 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.
Boardroom13 May 2030
182% of the income goes out in wages at KDV Tomsk
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout13 May 2030
This is not rotation. Koji Haraguchi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at KDV Tomsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad13 May 2030
Words exchanged at KDV Tomsk
Viktor Mikheev 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.
Squad13 May 2030
“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 KDV Tomsk know it.
The dugout13 May 2030
Nikita Simdyankin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at KDV Tomsk will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout13 May 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jakob Lustig, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 May 2030
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KDV Tomsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom6 May 2030
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Sergei Belousov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market6 May 2030
“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 KDV Tomsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout6 May 2030
This is not rotation. Georgy Terekhov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at KDV Tomsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad6 May 2030
Words at KDV Tomsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Simdyankin 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.
Boardroom6 May 2030
No signings allowed at KDV Tomsk
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.
Squad6 May 2030
Viktor Mikheev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout6 May 2030
The manager makes an example of Novak Grujic
“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.
Squad6 May 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; KDV Tomsk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Mar 2030
Tomáš Pipíška damages knee ligaments — 89 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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 terraces25 Mar 2030
Anger at KDV Tomsk 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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
A row about effort at KDV Tomsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Simdyankin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Viktor Mikheev 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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KDV Tomsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
Tomáš Pipíška gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tomáš Pipíška is on it.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yuriy Ignatov, and the manager let it.
Market25 Mar 2030
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Georgy Terekhov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market25 Mar 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nikita Simdyankin’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Mar 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tomáš Pipíška
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KDV Tomsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
Yuriy Ignatov: 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.” KDV Tomsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Everybody at KDV Tomsk saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words at KDV Tomsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Selemenev 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.
Boardroom18 Mar 2030
191% of the income goes out in wages at KDV Tomsk
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
This is not rotation. Koji Haraguchi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at KDV Tomsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words exchanged at KDV Tomsk
Viktor Mikheev 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 dugout18 Mar 2030
“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 dugout18 Mar 2030
Nikita Simdyankin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at KDV Tomsk will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Dec 2029
No end in sight to KDV Tomsk's wait for a win
15 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at KDV Tomsk has to find a result from somewhere.
Match15 Dec 2029
Nowhere to hide for KDV Tomsk
1‑4 against Krylya Sovetov 2, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
This is not rotation. Georgy Terekhov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at KDV Tomsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Ivan Selemenev 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 Dec 2029
The goal that put Krylya Sovetov 2 ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when KDV Tomsk equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Looking ahead17 Dec 2029
Uralets-TS next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
Arda Türken 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.
Boardroom17 Dec 2029
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Oct 2029
No end in sight to KDV Tomsk's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at KDV Tomsk has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Oct 2029
A row about effort at KDV Tomsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Simdyankin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom29 Oct 2029
Wages eat 172% of everything KDV Tomsk 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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
“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 KDV Tomsk know it.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Too much change too quickly at KDV Tomsk
6 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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Viktor Mikheev 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.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Sergei Belousov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Market29 Oct 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KDV Tomsk, another week without a signature from Timofey Shemenev.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Oct 2029
The wait goes on for KDV Tomsk
8 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.
Market22 Oct 2029
Novak Grujic 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 KDV Tomsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Words at KDV Tomsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Selemenev 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.
The terraces22 Oct 2029
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match20 Oct 2029
Level with 92 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon KDV Tomsk had all but put away. Chelyabinsk 2 will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
Arda Türken 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 ratings22 Oct 2029
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.43 on the card, and the KDV Tomsk support went home talking about one name.
Squad22 Oct 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 KDV Tomsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match20 Oct 2029
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Sep 2029
“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.
Boardroom10 Sep 2029
Window shuts: 13 in, 12 out at KDV Tomsk
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 12 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets10 Sep 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Volgar have kept their man, and KDV Tomsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Sep 2029
A row about effort at KDV Tomsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Selemenev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
Arda Türken 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.
Transfer targets10 Sep 2029
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Bryansk: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words exchanged at KDV Tomsk
Viktor Mikheev 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 dugout10 Sep 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Maxim Palienko is on it.
Market10 Sep 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KDV Tomsk, another week without a signature from Timofey Shemenev.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Sep 2029
“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.
Market3 Sep 2029
KDV Tomsk say no — this time
The offer from Zenit for Viktor Mikheev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Words exchanged at KDV Tomsk
Nikita Simdyankin 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.
Match1 Sep 2029
The goals have deserted KDV Tomsk
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at KDV Tomsk can tell you which week it ends in.
Transfer targets3 Sep 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad3 Sep 2029
A row about effort at KDV Tomsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Selemenev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Wages swallow 119% of the KDV Tomsk income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout3 Sep 2029
The manager makes an example of Novak Grujic
“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
Crisis
Market27 Aug 2029
“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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
A one-man rearguard from Ori Dabbur
There were 6 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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Eldar Bliev 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.
Transfer targets27 Aug 2029
KDV Tomsk asked and Krasnodar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Nikita Simdyankin 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.
Match25 Aug 2029
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market27 Aug 2029
The name of Viktor Mikheev has come up in conversations KDV Tomsk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Sergei Belousov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad27 Aug 2029
“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 KDV Tomsk know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Sergei Belousov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Feb 2029
“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 KDV Tomsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at KDV Tomsk
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at KDV Tomsk is running low.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
The deal with Khimik is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad5 Feb 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 KDV Tomsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at KDV Tomsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Selemenev 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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
KDV Tomsk cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Market5 Feb 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KDV Tomsk, another week without a signature from Hussain Mahmood.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Jan 2029
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Vsevolod Buradjiev decided nobody was going anywhere. Chelyabinsk 2 had no time left to answer.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.75 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market29 Jan 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KDV Tomsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market29 Jan 2029
“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 ratings29 Jan 2029
Marked 8.37 at 15, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match27 Jan 2029
The drought breaks for KDV Tomsk
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Chelyabinsk 2 were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Everything agreed with Leningradets, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad29 Jan 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 KDV Tomsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Jan 2029
Chelyabinsk 2 made KDV Tomsk work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.