The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Strogino is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Strogino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Strogino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Artem Telepov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Words at Strogino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wesley De Vrij 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.
Artem Telepov 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Strogino could ask drops and the wages Jasper Strootman can ask rise.
In brief
The dugoutVasily Blokhin asks for a word with the manager
BoardroomThe Strogino production line keeps running
Artem Telepov 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.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Words at Strogino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wesley De Vrij 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Strogino, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Strogino would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The club is in the hands of administrators, 9 points have gone off the table, and no signing may be made until further notice. Everything this season was about was decided in a room nobody from the ground was sitting in.
“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 Strogino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jasper Strootman will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Strogino the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Strogino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Strogino have done the hard part with Dinamo Moscow, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Strogino had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Astrakhan, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Strogino can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Artem Telepov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Strogino go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 supervision lifts, the embargo goes with it, and the club can sign a player again. Nobody involved wants to describe the year it took, and nobody involved will forget it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Strogino is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Strogino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Strogino 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.
Match2 Feb 2036
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Strogino. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Strogino can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with CSKA Moscow, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Irtysh have kept their man, and Strogino go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vasily Blokhin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 16 actions, 6.75, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Artem Telepov 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.
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.
“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.
The dugout14 Jan 2036
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Strogino can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Strogino they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Chances created: 20. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
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.
26 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Ilja Ivanov.
Artem Telepov 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.
A mark of 7.30, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout24 Dec 2035
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.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Strogino, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Strogino can pretend not to have heard.
Artem Telepov 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.
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Strogino could ask drops and the wages Ilja Ivanov can ask rise.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Strogino they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Strogino can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Strogino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
“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 Strogino, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Strogino have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Strogino, another week without a signature from Arsen Omarov.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout3 Dec 2035
Somebody else is better right now than Ilja Ivanov
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Strogino they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jasper Strootman has agreed terms with Kuban for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Strogino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Strogino, another week without a signature from Ilja Ivanov.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutIlja Ivanov dropped after a run of poor form
The dugoutMiguel Neves asks for a word with the manager
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Strogino lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Mashuk had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Strogino did not stop to explain themselves.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Hayden Anderson has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Strogino lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Artem Telepov 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“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 Strogino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Artem Telepov 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.
At 33, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“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 Strogino, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Strogino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Lukasz Bednarek has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Strogino have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Strogino will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Kvant in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jasper Strootman did not need any: 8.33, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 6.53, and involved in 3 of his side's goals.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 11 goals between Strogino and Rodina 2, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
He is 22 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.
A brace, and Miguel Neves takes the afternoon — 8.70
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Miguel Neves provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Strogino can pretend not to have heard.
Artem Telepov 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Lorenzo Errunghi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Strogino have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Strogino can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Artem Telepov 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.
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.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Yakov Devyatkin
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Strogino have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Strogino can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jasper Strootman did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Strogino lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Strogino, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Chaika 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.
Artem Telepov 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Moscow have kept their man, and Strogino go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Strogino can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcus Larsson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Strogino the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with PSK Pervorechenskoe 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.
Artem Telepov 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.
Strogino asked and Spartak Tambov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Strogino could ask drops and the wages Yegor Tinyakov can ask rise.
71 graduates, from a department now rated 4 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Artem Telepov 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.
Strogino asked and Irkutsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yegor Tinyakov signs something — a contract at Strogino or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
MatchContinental football is in reach for Strogino
“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 Strogino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Artem Telepov 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.
“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 Strogino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Artem Telepov 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yegor Tinyakov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yegor Tinyakov signs something — a contract at Strogino or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Strogino, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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 Andrey Sorokin has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Strogino, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Strogino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Strogino, another week without a signature from Yegor Tinyakov.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vladimir Pochechura signs something — a contract at Strogino or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Strogino will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
The dugoutDanil Savin knocks on the manager's door
Artem Telepov 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.
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 Andrey Sorokin has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Innokentiy Rusakov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
BoardroomThe Strogino production line keeps running
“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 Strogino, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Artem Telepov 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Strogino, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
71 graduates, from a department now rated 4 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Artem Telepov 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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Strogino, another week without a signature from Yegor Tinyakov.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Strogino, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yegor Tinyakov signs something — a contract at Strogino or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Strogino. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Strogino would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.