Marked for Simon Pearson
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets6 Aug 2035
The clubs have shaken hands with Orenburg; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market6 Aug 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at Rodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market6 Aug 2035
Edward Graham has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rodina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2035
The deal with Orenburg 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.
Squad6 Aug 2035
Tempers go at Rodina
Dmitry Markitesov 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.
Match4 Aug 2035
Three points for Rodina, 3‑2 the final word against Akron 2 in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akron have kept their man, and Rodina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces6 Aug 2035
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings6 Aug 2035
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Jul 2035
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rodina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market9 Jul 2035
Edward Graham has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rodina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Jul 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Denis Tikhonov and Rodina agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Jul 2035
Tempers go at Rodina
Artem Biryukov 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 targets9 Jul 2035
Rodina asked and Akron said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout9 Jul 2035
This is not rotation. Timofey Savin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Rodina is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2035
A loan enquiry to Lokomotiv Moscow: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout9 Jul 2035
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.
The dugout9 Jul 2035
The manager makes an example of Simon Pearson
“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
Squad25 Jun 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Simon Pearson
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rodina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad25 Jun 2035
A falling-out at Rodina
Dmitry Markitesov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2035
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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2035
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Moscow: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout25 Jun 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Bezprozvannyi, and the manager let it.
The dugout25 Jun 2035
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 Frederik Ibsen is on it.
Market25 Jun 2035
The name of Denis Tikhonov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Rodina say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad25 Jun 2035
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Rodina will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Match25 Jun 2035
Rodina in the hunt for Europe
Position 6, 55 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jun 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Simon Pearson
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rodina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market18 Jun 2035
“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.
The dugout18 Jun 2035
This is not rotation. Denis Tikhonov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Rodina is pretending otherwise.
Market18 Jun 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikolai Zhirinovsky will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rodina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Rodina have done the hard part with Rubin, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad18 Jun 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jun 2035
46 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
A loan enquiry to Rostov: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market18 Jun 2035
He is 20, and nobody at Rodina signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jun 2035
Simon Pearson damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Squad11 Jun 2035
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Vladislav Postrigan is living that version at Rodina, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market11 Jun 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rodina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Jun 2035
Tempers go at Rodina
Dmitry Markitesov 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.
Squad11 Jun 2035
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.
Boardroom11 Jun 2035
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Bogdan Markov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rodina have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The dugout11 Jun 2035
This is not rotation. Timofey Savin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Rodina is pretending otherwise.
The dugout11 Jun 2035
The manager makes an example of Diego Dufort
“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.
Market11 Jun 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 May 2035
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad28 May 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 May 2035
Kirill Simonov 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.
Market28 May 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Rodina, another week without a signature from Quentin Beunardeau.
The dugout28 May 2035
Enzo Ekuba asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout28 May 2035
“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 dugout28 May 2035
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 Frederik Ibsen is on it.
Market28 May 2035
The name of Denis Tikhonov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Rodina say nothing, which says plenty.
Market28 May 2035
The clock does Maximiliano Añasco’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Rodina could ask drops and the wages Maximiliano Añasco can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout21 May 2035
This is not rotation. Denis Tikhonov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Rodina is pretending otherwise.
Market21 May 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rodina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 May 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 May 2035
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.
The dugout21 May 2035
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rodina, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market21 May 2035
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Simon Pearson has his answer from Rodina; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout21 May 2035
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.
The dugout21 May 2035
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 Roman Sumachev has written the date down.
Loan watch21 May 2035
The agreement at Volga has 11 days left in it, with 6 appearances to weigh. Three doors: keep him, sell him, lend him again — and none of them stays open long.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 May 2034
Rodina sink to position 16
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market29 May 2034
Only the photograph left for Ivan Abdulov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ivan Abdulov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rodina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout29 May 2034
This is not rotation. Toby Vanaken has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Rodina is pretending otherwise.
Squad29 May 2034
Words exchanged at Rodina
Dmitry Markitesov 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.
Squad29 May 2034
A row about effort at Rodina
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denis Tikhonov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 May 2034
The manager has not finished forgetting Leo Goglichidze's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout29 May 2034
“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 dugout29 May 2034
Simon Pearson has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rodina 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.
Market29 May 2034
The name of Vladimir Pavlov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Rodina say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Apr 2034
“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 Rodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout10 Apr 2034
Tamaz Topuria: 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.” Rodina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 Apr 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2034
Denis Tikhonov 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.
The dugout10 Apr 2034
Nobody at Rodina 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.
Market10 Apr 2034
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Rodina, another week without a signature from Yegor Teterlev.
The dugout10 Apr 2034
“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.
Market10 Apr 2034
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Magomedkhabib Abdusalamov signs something — a contract at Rodina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout10 Apr 2034
Eldar Bliev 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 Eldar Bliev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Apr 2034
Rodina sink to position 16
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom3 Apr 2034
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom3 Apr 2034
Crisis meeting at Rodina
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.
Market3 Apr 2034
“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 Rodina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market3 Apr 2034
Rodina say no — this time
The offer from Haka for Ruben Elyounoussi 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.
The dugout3 Apr 2034
“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.
Market3 Apr 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rodina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Apr 2034
Words at Rodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leo Goglichidze 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.
Squad3 Apr 2034
A falling-out at Rodina
Kirill Kon' and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces23 Jan 2034
Anger at Rodina 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.
Match21 Jan 2034
Nowhere to hide for Rodina
0‑5 against Dinamo Moscow, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad23 Jan 2034
A falling-out at Rodina
Dmitry Markitesov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Jan 2034
Denis Tikhonov 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.
The dugout23 Jan 2034
“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.
Boardroom23 Jan 2034
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad23 Jan 2034
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The dugout23 Jan 2034
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout23 Jan 2034
Somebody else is better right now than Leo Goglichidze
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces26 Dec 2033
Supporters organise against the Rodina 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.
Squad26 Dec 2033
There were 12 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.
Match24 Dec 2033
The wait goes on for Rodina
11 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.
Match24 Dec 2033
Chastening afternoon for Rodina
A 0‑8 beating by Zenit was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match24 Dec 2033
Rodina cannot find the net
9 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match24 Dec 2033
8 goals as Rodina and Zenit go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Rodina and Zenit, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad26 Dec 2033
Denis Tikhonov 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.
The dugout26 Dec 2033
“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.
Boardroom26 Dec 2033
Doors closed at Rodina
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Dec 2033
The wait goes on for Rodina
10 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.
Match17 Dec 2033
Chastening afternoon for Rodina
A 0‑3 beating by CSKA Moscow was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match17 Dec 2033
8 matches without a goal for Rodina
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 8 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad19 Dec 2033
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rodina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Dec 2033
Leo Goglichidze 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.
The dugout19 Dec 2033
The manager makes an example of Eldar Bliev
“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.
Boardroom19 Dec 2033
Doors closed at Rodina
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad19 Dec 2033
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Vladimir Pavlov knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout19 Dec 2033
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 0‑3 Gleb Bondarenko left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Dec 2033
Rodina sink to position 16
1 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match10 Dec 2033
No end in sight to Rodina's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Rodina has to find a result from somewhere.
Match10 Dec 2033
Rodina cannot find the net
7 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market12 Dec 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rodina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Dec 2033
Words at Rodina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Tikhonov 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 Dec 2033
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Simon Pearson commits to Rodina for another 5 years.
Squad12 Dec 2033
Tempers go at Rodina
Danila Yanov 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 dugout12 Dec 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zakhar Chervyakov, and the manager let it.
Match10 Dec 2033
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.