There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Eddy Lanzi is living that version at Rostov, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rostov can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutMarat Kovalkov dropped after a run of poor form
Olakunle Olusegun 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Harrison Wood is living that version at Rostov, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Chistyakov 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.
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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Successful dribbles: 36. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rostov 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 Dmitry Chistyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chinedu Geoffrey. 2‑1 against Akron, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Two goals and a mark of 9.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Rostov hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
7 goals in one match, Maxim Turischev on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Rostov and KAMAZ.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Chistyakov 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.
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.
Marked 8.63 — 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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rostov 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 Dmitry Chistyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Dmitry Chistyakov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Yefim Zimnin to a room that had heard them before.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Rostov will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rostov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mateo Zapata has just signed for Rostov, and for once the answer mattered.
100 goals for this club, and somewhere in the stand there is a person who can still tell you where they were for most of them.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Chistyakov 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.
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Olakunle Olusegun 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Rostov can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Chistyakov 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Rostov heard it as anything else.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Leonel Sánchez is living that version at Rostov, and it tends to show in the first month.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Chistyakov 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rostov have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Victor Melekhin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Chistyakov 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.
0‑2 to Lokomotiv Moscow, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Yefim Zimnin to a room that had heard them before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rustam Yatimov 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 Victor Melekhin signs something — a contract at Rostov or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Ural had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Rostov did not stop to explain themselves.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Rostov can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Olakunle Olusegun 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.
Marked 8.28 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Yefim Zimnin on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 28 arrived, 19 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Olakunle Olusegun and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Chistyakov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nizhniy Novgorod have kept their man, and Rostov go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Something was said to Simon Eriksson and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
7 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 a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Chinedu Geoffrey provided it, and the 9.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rostov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. SKA Khabarovsk have kept their man, and Rostov go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrey Langovich and Rostov agree another 4 years.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Chistyakov 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chinedu Geoffrey. 2‑1 against Krasnodar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Rostov hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Olakunle Olusegun 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rostov will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
CSKA Moscow paid $3.9M and Rostov took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Spartak Moscow pay $2.4M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Dmitry Chistyakov 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kirill Kistenev is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rostov will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The name of Maxim Mukhin has come up in conversations Rostov were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Stockport County is saying, and nobody at Rostov is enjoying the guessing.
Olakunle Olusegun 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Timofey Schelkunov is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Yan Tses' has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Rostov heard it as anything else.
Olakunle Olusegun 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Alexandr Shilov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Matvey Ryazantsev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniil Fedorov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
6 new faces, and Rostov 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.
Nobody at Rostov 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 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 Rostov hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Olakunle Olusegun 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.
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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Moiseev 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.
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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
A strip of cloth that decides nothing on the pitch and tells the dressing room whose opinion counts. The manager has made a statement without making one.
“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 Rostov hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The phone has started ringing about Maxim Turischev again, and this time the name on the line is Chicago Fire. Rostov are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Imran Aznaurov 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.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yaroslav Mikhailov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Olakunle Olusegun 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.
Something was said to Dmitry Chistyakov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rostov have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7.82, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Moiseev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Erik Kojzek did not need any: 7.92, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Olakunle Olusegun 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 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rostov have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Parmo 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Erik Kojzek
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Erik Kojzek has come out of that comparison in the side, and Rostov have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Olakunle Olusegun 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 shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Tomás Parmo, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.06
A mark of 8.06 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rostov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Parmo 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.
Position 10, 17 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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Dinamo Makhachkala scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Anton Zabolotny. 1‑0 against Orenburg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
18 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Yefim Zimnin, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The offer from Shinnik for David Semenchuk 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AZ is saying, and nobody at Rostov is enjoying the guessing.
Dmitry Chistyakov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Utrecht have kept their man, and Rostov go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Nizhniy Novgorod pay $5.9M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
He is going to Nizhniy Novgorod, the club has $5.9M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The chase for Ramazan Gadjimuradov ended with $1.0M changing hands and Rubin out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Rostov had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Watford, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vladislav Sokolov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rostov will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Olakunle Olusegun and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Chistyakov 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.
“I watch every Rostov game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at SKA Khabarovsk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Diego Sánchez is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Rostov. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutDanila Prokhin asks for a word with the manager
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Kirill Moiseev’s exile
“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 Rostov, 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.” Rostov have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Alexey Mironov 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Chistyakov 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Diego Sánchez has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Rostov have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Nobody at Rostov 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rostov have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Olakunle Olusegun 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Rostov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Prokhin 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rostov, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Rostov 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 standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rostov, 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 Rostov 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 Danila Prokhin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rostov know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Chistyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mikhail Schetinin 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 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 Rustam Khalnazarov is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Chistyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Timur Suleimanov is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rostov, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Ivan Lepskiy has written the date down.
In brief
SquadIvan Lepskiy has seen what the next man earns