“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aslan Aushev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo St Petersburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo St Petersburg can pretend not to have heard.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo St Petersburg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakub Zych was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Dinamo St Petersburg can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo St Petersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Dinamo St Petersburg asked and Spartak Moscow 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 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.
Dinamo St Petersburg have made the call to Spartak Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Rizvan Umarov is on it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Spartak Nalchik waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo St Petersburg is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo St Petersburg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo St Petersburg can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakub Zych was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 8.15 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo St Petersburg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
4 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.
Rizvan Umarov 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Spartak Tambov tried to reorganise, Dinamo St Petersburg did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danil Kazantsev 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 an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.20 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 Dinamo St Petersburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Rizvan Umarov 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Znamya Truda tried to reorganise, Dinamo St Petersburg did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
In brief
SquadJakub Zych falls out with a teammate over standards
Two goals and a mark of 8.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Dinamo St Petersburg have had the benefit of 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 Dinamo St Petersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo St Petersburg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danil Kazantsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Aleksey Nesterov could afford to be generous.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Zych 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksey Nesterov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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.
In brief
Loan watchArtem Meshalkin’s loan is measured in nothing happening
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Masalov 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.
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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Aleksey Nesterov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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 Roman Torosyan is on it.
Rizvan Umarov 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 said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Masalov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
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.
8 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo St Petersburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rizvan Umarov 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 Danil Kazantsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo St Petersburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danil Kazantsev 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.
14 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilja Kubyshkin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Ryazan next, and one man in the Dinamo St Petersburg dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vladislav Shepelev signs something — a contract at Dinamo St Petersburg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo St Petersburg 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 Nikolay Rybikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Arseniy Rogov 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.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Metallurg.
Metallurg next, and one man in the Dinamo St Petersburg dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danil Kazantsev 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Nobody at Dinamo St Petersburg 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.
Aslan Aushev is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Rotor 2 will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Dinamo St Petersburg were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Rizvan Umarov 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.
He is 20 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 ratings28 Sep 2026
Jakub Zych was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.17 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakub Zych was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.” Aleksey Nesterov kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Dinamo St Petersburg 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.
0‑3 to Spartak Tambov, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo St Petersburg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marked 7.11 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danil Kazantsev 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksey Nesterov after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Rizvan Umarov was the best thing in any of them.
The match ball belongs to Rizvan Umarov, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Alexey Baev takes the afternoon — 8.90
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexey Baev provided it, and the 8.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.60 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Dinamo St Petersburg and Znamya Truda, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
At 23 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Dinamo St Petersburg will try again when the window opens; Spartak Kostroma may not be selling by then.
Znamya Truda paid $59.0K and Dinamo St Petersburg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danil Kazantsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.74 on the card, and the Dinamo St Petersburg support went home talking about one name.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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 1‑2 Aleksey Nesterov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“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 Dinamo St Petersburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Rizvan Umarov 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jakub Zych and Dinamo St Petersburg agree another 3 years.
Kuban paid $29.0K and Dinamo St Petersburg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo St Petersburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Aziz Gaziev 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $20.8K — a club that wants Sergey Oliynyk enough to be asked twice.
Add another name to the list: Sevastopol have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Aziz Gaziev. The answer from Dinamo St Petersburg has not changed — yet.
Rizvan Umarov 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.
Dinamo St Petersburg offered $15.0K; Dinamo Vologda 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Sergey Chernenko has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Dinamo St Petersburg have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Arseniy Yermakov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vladlen Burov 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.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pavel Kireenko and Dinamo St Petersburg agree another 2 years.
Dinamo St Petersburg have gone to Dinamo Vologda with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
He is 20 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 2‑0 win over SKA Khabarovsk 2, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.