The Nosta Chronicle
Match16 Aug 2036
Still nobody has beaten Nosta
The unbeaten run reaches 20. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad18 Aug 2036
The knee: Ondřej Sprinz out for 103 days
103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nosta lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match16 Aug 2036
No mercy from Nosta
Neftekhimik will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Nosta were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market18 Aug 2036
Pavel Satuchin 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 Nosta can pretend not to have heard.
Market18 Aug 2036
Federico Pierluigi has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nosta they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings18 Aug 2036
A brace, and Nabil Zamani takes the afternoon — 8.21
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nabil Zamani provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings18 Aug 2036
Age has not caught Oleg Korotkov yet — 8.24
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match16 Aug 2036
The run at home goes on for Nosta
12 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Transfer targets18 Aug 2036
The paperwork begins on Leonid Berezhnoy
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nosta have done the hard part with Rostov, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
In brief
- Squad Ondřej Sprinz in a row with a teammate
- Transfer targets Krasnodar tell Nosta: Dmitry Novikov is not for sale
- The dugout No hiding place for Mario Freuler