“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Famalicao can pretend not to have heard.
Lazar Carević and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Famalicao training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sorriso 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.
“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; Famalicao are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Famalicao has been clear about where Ivan Zlobin stands, which is more than many ever get.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Famalicao, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
Lazar Carević 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Famalicao training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sorriso 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Carlos Castro after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Famalicao is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Akhmat lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Timur Suleimanov will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Akhmat escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Akhmat have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Akhmat, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $1.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Rostov drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Akhmat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akhmat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 1‑0 win over Nizhniy Novgorod, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Getting past Pascal Loretz has become the hardest job in the division
8 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
The dugout4 Jan 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.” Makar Milyukov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Famalicao can pretend not to have heard.
3 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Gil Vicente the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Famalicao will enjoy reviewing.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Famalicao had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Famalicao have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 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.
Lazar Carević 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.
In brief
Player ratingsGiorgos Koutsias was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Arsen Adamov 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. CSKA Moscow had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Zlobin 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.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohamed Konaté. 1‑0 against Dinamo Moscow, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Akhmat told Pascal Loretz something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Makar Milyukov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Zlobin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Akhmat, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akhmat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Makar Milyukov to a room that had heard them before.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Akhmat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Zlobin 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Marcos Peña obliged against Portimonense. 6‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Famalicao.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rudi Almeida did not need any: 8.29, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Lazar Carević 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Famalicao and Portimonense in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Famalicao, and 3 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Akhmat lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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 ratings28 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Júlio Romão delivers — 7.79
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Júlio Romão scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Arsen Adamov 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 Ivan Zlobin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.72 — 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Egas Cacintura was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.60. 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
70 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Akhmat lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Egas Cacintura 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ivan Zlobin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Corinthians have kept their man, and Akhmat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Galymzhan Kenzhebek 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.
Three points for Akhmat, 1‑0 the final word against Nizhniy Novgorod in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Lechi Sadulaev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.
13 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Akhmat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akhmat can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Akhmat have done the hard part with Luzern, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Akhmat and Spartak Moscow, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Zlobin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Akhmat asked and Boca Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Mohamed Konaté was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.44. 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.