Marked for Danil Savin
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Apr 2036
“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 The request is on a desk at Strogino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Apr 2036
“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.
The dugout14 Apr 2036
Artem Telepov 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 Artem Telepov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Mar 2036
“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 The request is on a desk at Strogino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Mar 2036
A falling-out at Strogino
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.
Market24 Mar 2036
The name of Miguel Neves keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Strogino say nothing, which says plenty.
Market24 Mar 2036
6 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Strogino could get for him.
The dugout24 Mar 2036
Vasily Blokhin 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Feb 2036
“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.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2036
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.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2036
No thanks: Yakov Pronin rejects the move
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.
The dugout11 Feb 2036
This is not rotation. Jasper Strootman has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Strogino is pretending otherwise.
Squad11 Feb 2036
“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.
Squad11 Feb 2036
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.
Match9 Feb 2036
Jasper Strootman scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Kvant, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2036
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.
Boardroom11 Feb 2036
232% of the income goes out in wages at Strogino
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Jul 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.
Squad16 Jul 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 Strogino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jul 2035
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.
Boardroom16 Jul 2035
5 academy graduates step up at Strogino
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Market16 Jul 2035
Add another name to the list: Znamya Truda have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marcus Larsson. The answer from Strogino has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSK Pervorechenskoe have kept their man, and Strogino go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market16 Jul 2035
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yuriy Shilov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market16 Jul 2035
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ivan Spiridonov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Boardroom16 Jul 2035
Strogino board go back on their word
Something was promised, a deadline passed, and it did not arrive. Trust inside a football club is built over years and spent in an afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Jul 2035
“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.
Market9 Jul 2035
Only the photograph left for Marcus Larsson
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.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2035
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.
Squad9 Jul 2035
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.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2035
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.
Market9 Jul 2035
The clock does Yegor Tinyakov’s negotiating for him
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.
Market9 Jul 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vladislav Drapeza’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout9 Jul 2035
Danil Savin 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.
Boardroom9 Jul 2035
The Strogino academy earns its keep
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Jun 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 Strogino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Jun 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andrey Sorokin commits to Strogino for another 2 years.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Words exchanged at Strogino
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.
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
152% of the income goes out in wages at Strogino
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.
Market4 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.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Strogino will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Market4 Jun 2035
Strogino have let the market know Marcus Larsson can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout4 Jun 2035
Yegor Tinyakov 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 Yegor Tinyakov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market4 Jun 2035
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 May 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 Strogino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 May 2035
A falling-out at Strogino
Artem Telepov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom28 May 2035
No signings allowed at Strogino
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.
Market28 May 2035
The name of Viktor Troch keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Strogino say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout28 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 Andrey Sorokin has written the date down.
The dugout28 May 2035
Danil Savin knocks on the manager's door
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
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 Strogino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 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.
Market21 May 2035
“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.
Market21 May 2035
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Strogino money.
Market21 May 2035
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.
Squad21 May 2035
“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.