34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSKA Moscow lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
62 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Neman had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
CSKA Moscow offered $5.1M; Zenit said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The offer from Krylya Sovetov for Alerrandro 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.
Grischa Prömel 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danil Krugovoy 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.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. CSKA Moscow will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Matheus Reis 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.
5 clean sheets in 16 appearances on loan. Whoever starts the first game of the season will have had to earn it, which is not something anybody at CSKA Moscow could say last August.
Squad7 Jun 2027
9 new faces, and CSKA Moscow are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether CSKA Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Fedor Smolov 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 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fedor Smolov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Luciano Gondou has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. João Victor wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Nobody at CSKA Moscow 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.
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.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Luciano Gondou plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at CSKA Moscow heard it as anything else.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nikita Krivtsov wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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; CSKA Moscow are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
João Victor 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 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 Chorý is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luciano Gondou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
3 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Orenburg go through and CSKA Moscow go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tomáš Chorý. 3‑1 against Zenit, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Position 2, 42 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matvey Kislyak did not need any: 8.18, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
12 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Grischa Prömel wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Matvey Kislyak 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Reis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Looking aheadThe big one: Krasnodar come into view
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Matheus Alves was one of the reasons people came, and $13.3M does not replace that by itself.
The offer from Godoy Cruz for Ramiro Di Luciano 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matheus Reis wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Fedor Smolov 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.
At 21 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Botafogo for Matheus Alves 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether CSKA Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Reis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether CSKA Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Grischa Prömel 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tomáš Chorý. 1‑0 against Sochi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Position 3, 34 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.99 for the rest of it.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about CSKA Moscow and Nizhniy Novgorod in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about CSKA Moscow and Mashuk in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
SquadAt 21, Kirill Glebov is already the best thing here
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Reis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody at CSKA Moscow 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.
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a CSKA Moscow man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Tomáš Chorý was the best thing in any of them.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and CSKA Moscow supporters have already started telling it.
Moisés 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 21 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.
8 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.
Something was said to Alexey Miranchuk and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
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 Alexey Miranchuk is on it.
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Kirill Glebov, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84
A mark of 7.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
6 matches without defeat, and then Krylya Sovetov. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Matheus Reis 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 fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes CSKA Moscow will be judged on one thing only.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Luciano Gondou is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CSKA Moscow told Tomáš Chorý something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Derby days make names, and Tomáš Chorý made his against Spartak Moscow. 3‑1, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Matheus Alves 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.
3 goals inside twenty minutes with Tomáš Chorý in the middle of it, and Spartak Moscow unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danil Krugovoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Grischa Prömel 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. João Victor wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Matheus Reis 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.
Spartak Moscow next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
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 Luciano Gondou is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luciano Gondou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Minsk had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Anderlecht paid $4.5M and CSKA Moscow took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akhmat Grozny have kept their man, and CSKA Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Matheus Alves 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Reis 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.
Minute 85, against Krasnodar, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
In brief
Squad8 new faces, and CSKA Moscow are still learning each other
The fee is $6.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Panathinaikos drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Facundo Pellistri was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $6.3M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Reis 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.
Panathinaikos have accepted the money. What CSKA Moscow do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $11.6M has been paid because Amir Murillo is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. CSKA Moscow have paid $3.8M for Tomáš Chorý, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $3.4M has been paid because Jindřich Staněk is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
CSKA Moscow and Slavia Prague have settled on $3.8M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The offer went to Besiktas this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Atlanta United FC did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $8.4M for Alexey Miranchuk, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Galatasaray have kept their man, and CSKA Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matheus Alves wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matvey Kislyak and CSKA Moscow agree another 5 years.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Slavia Prague have done the hard part with Banik Ostrava, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The offer from Chrudim for Tomáš Vlček 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 shirt still fits. Denis Višinský is back at Slavia Prague, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
The phone has started ringing about Mojmír Chytil again, and this time the name on the line is PAOK. Slavia Prague are listening politely and promising nothing.
Daniel Šmiga 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
$6.2M on the table at Atlanta United FC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
$2.8M on the table at Slavia Prague. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Luciano Gondou wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Matvey Kislyak 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 20 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.
The offer from MSK Zilina for Tomáš Chorý 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Izuchukwu Okonkwo did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Slavia Prague heard it as anything else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Divine Teah 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.