Marked for Soltmurad Bakaev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Sep 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market10 Sep 2029
“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 VfL Bochum hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Isac Lidberg in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at VfL Bochum this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Sep 2029
As if he never left: Joël Schmied returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Joël Schmied is a VfL Bochum player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Albert Sambi Lokonga 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.
Transfer targets10 Sep 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bayern Munich have kept their man, and VfL Bochum go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Sep 2029
No place for Joël Schmied in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation VfL Bochum are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
The manager makes an example of Matisse Kapitza
“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.
Market10 Sep 2029
The Cajetan Lenz talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. VfL Bochum know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Aug 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. VfL Bochum have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market6 Aug 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at VfL Bochum, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market6 Aug 2029
Mainz 05 come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and VfL Bochum did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market6 Aug 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at VfL Bochum heard it as anything else.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
Still nobody in the VfL Bochum dugout
36 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad6 Aug 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Calvin Raatsie commits to VfL Bochum for another 4 years.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Jan Reichert in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at VfL Bochum this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Aug 2029
A row about effort at VfL Bochum
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Albert Sambi Lokonga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
VfL Bochum asked and Bayer Leverkusen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Dec 2028
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
Niklas Kolbe: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” VfL Bochum have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Philipp Sander 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.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Tom Zimmerschied 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.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Marked 8.38 — 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 ratings18 Dec 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Marked 7.19 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Loan watch18 Dec 2028
Jan Reichert’s loan is measured in nothing happening
10 clean sheets from 14 appearances at Holstein Kiel. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
The form table has caught Eser Gürbüz
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Soltmurad Bakaev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
$1.5M settles it between the clubs for Boris Mamuzah Lum
Hertha BSC have accepted the money. What VfL Bochum do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
VfL Bochum have gone to Mainz 05 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.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Angers SCO keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at VfL Bochum this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at VfL Bochum can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market10 Jul 2028
The phone has started ringing about Lúkas Petersson again, and this time the name on the line is SC Paderborn. VfL Bochum are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at VfL Bochum training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ihlas Bebou 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. VfL Bochum will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 May 2028
65 days out for Roman Denisov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nizhniy Novgorod will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match22 May 2028
Position 3 and 71 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market22 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nizhniy Novgorod is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 May 2028
Tenton Yenne 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sven Karič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ruslan Shagiakhmetov, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikita Medvedev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market22 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vladislav Sarveli’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout22 May 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market15 May 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad15 May 2028
Tenton Yenne 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sven Karič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch15 May 2028
“I did not go to BATE to sit and watch. I want to come back to Nizhniy Novgorod and fight for my place.” 10 appearances in 38 matches say the rest.
Boardroom15 May 2028
Wages eat 93% of everything Nizhniy Novgorod earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout15 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrey Okladnikov, and the manager let it.
Loan watch15 May 2028
The goals keep arriving from Artem Sokolov’s exile
7 goals in 32 games at Sokol — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nizhniy Novgorod updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Loan watch15 May 2028
The goals keep arriving from Ivan Bober’s exile
7 goals in 18 games at Chaika — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nizhniy Novgorod updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Market15 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Tenton Yenne’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Apr 2028
71 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market24 Apr 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nizhniy Novgorod they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
This is not rotation. Soltmurad Bakaev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Nizhniy Novgorod is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom24 Apr 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Vince Gino Dekker has agreed terms with Akron for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Daniil Lesovoy 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Sven Karič 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 dugout24 Apr 2028
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.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of James Gibbons
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Nizhniy Novgorod may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Tenton Yenne 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Nizhniy Novgorod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abubakr-Rizo Turdialiyev 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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
Wages eat 99% of everything Nizhniy Novgorod earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Loan watch17 Apr 2028
“I did not go to BATE to sit and watch. I want to come back to Nizhniy Novgorod and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 34 matches say the rest.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Nizhniy Novgorod are still strangers to each other
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.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Loan watch17 Apr 2028
32 appearances at Sokol and the goals keep coming. Nizhniy Novgorod are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Loan watch17 Apr 2028
18 appearances away from home and 7 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match27 Mar 2028
68 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Soltmurad Bakaev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Nizhniy Novgorod is pretending otherwise.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Tenton Yenne 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Nizhniy Novgorod know it.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Tomas Rukas gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Artem Timofeev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Nizhniy Novgorod 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.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
KAMAZ next, and one man in the Nizhniy Novgorod dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Soltmurad Bakaev
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nizhniy Novgorod lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
A brace, and Vladislav Sarveli takes the afternoon — 8.18
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vladislav Sarveli provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vladislav Sarveli and Nizhniy Novgorod agree another 3 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nizhniy Novgorod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets6 Mar 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Loan watch6 Mar 2028
“I watch every Nizhniy Novgorod game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Volga runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad6 Mar 2028
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 dugout6 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Soltmurad Bakaev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Feb 2028
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nizhniy Novgorod lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Feb 2028
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Transfer targets28 Feb 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match28 Feb 2028
Position 3 and 62 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Nizhniy Novgorod until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Soltmurad Bakaev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Nizhniy Novgorod is pretending otherwise.
Market28 Feb 2028
The bid was some way short and Nizhniy Novgorod did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Tenton Yenne 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Feb 2028
Soltmurad Bakaev damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
$4.6M settles it between the clubs for Rubens
Dinamo Moscow have accepted the money. What Nizhniy Novgorod do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market21 Feb 2028
The offer from BATE for Nikita Medvedev 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 dugout21 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Nizhniy Novgorod may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Tenton Yenne 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.
Market21 Feb 2028
The fee is $95.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Fakel drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Nizhniy Novgorod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sven Karič 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Nizhniy Novgorod will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Feb 2028
Soltmurad Bakaev damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Market14 Feb 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nizhniy Novgorod can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
The deal with Fakel is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Tenton Yenne and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Feb 2028
15 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Nikita Medvedev
“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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Nizhniy Novgorod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abubakr-Rizo Turdialiyev 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Soltmurad Bakaev
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nizhniy Novgorod lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market7 Feb 2028
“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 Nizhniy Novgorod, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Zenit keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Tenton Yenne in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nizhniy Novgorod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Sven Karič 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Match5 Feb 2028
Hazem Mastouri scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Sochi, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Daniil Lesovoy
5 goals and a season average of 7.36 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The Nizhniy Novgorod board find $2.2M for the manager
Money, not words, and it is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending $2.2M well is entirely his problem now.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Jan 2028
Tenton Yenne hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nizhniy Novgorod can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Krylya Sovetov waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nizhniy Novgorod is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market31 Jan 2028
The offer from Slavia Mozyr for Nikita Medvedev 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.
Match31 Jan 2028
Position 3, 55 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.
Match29 Jan 2028
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Soltmurad Bakaev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Nizhniy Novgorod is pretending otherwise.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Tenton Yenne 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Nizhniy Novgorod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sven Karič 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.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Nizhniy Novgorod asked and SKA Khabarovsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jan 2028
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.
Match15 Jan 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Nizhniy Novgorod did not have in the autumn.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Daniil Lesovoy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Jan 2028
13 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Nikita Medvedev
“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.
Market17 Jan 2028
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nizhniy Novgorod has been clear about where Soltmurad Bakaev stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Nizhniy Novgorod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yury Koledin 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 dugout17 Jan 2028
Roman Yevgenjev is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladislav Sarveli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Jan 2028
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match3 Jan 2028
Position 3, 50 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
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. Nizhniy Novgorod will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Soltmurad Bakaev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Nizhniy Novgorod is pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Tenton Yenne in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nizhniy Novgorod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Jan 2028
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Nizhniy Novgorod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sven Karič 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.
Match1 Jan 2028
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Tenton Yenne and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
Wages eat 137% of everything Nizhniy Novgorod earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.30, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Daniil Lesovoy
4 goals and a season average of 7.33 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Yury Koledin 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 dugout27 Dec 2027
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.” Alexey Konstantinov kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 Dec 2027
“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 Nizhniy Novgorod, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Dec 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Tenton Yenne 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Nizhniy Novgorod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sven Karič 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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Ninety minutes of Abat Aiymbetov at his very best
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Nizhniy Novgorod.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A season average of 7.30 with 3 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to James Gibbons, and the manager let it.
Match18 Dec 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Nov 2027
Position 2, 39 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.
Market29 Nov 2027
“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 Nizhniy Novgorod, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Daniil Lesovoy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Nizhniy Novgorod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sven Karič 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.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
137% of the income goes out in wages at Nizhniy Novgorod
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.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tomas Rukas, and the manager let it.
Match29 Nov 2027
Half the programme played, position 2, 39 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match1 Nov 2027
35 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Market1 Nov 2027
“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 Nizhniy Novgorod, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match30 Oct 2027
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Tenton Yenne and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Sven Karič 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.
Match30 Oct 2027
A 1‑0 win over Sokol, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Wages swallow 112% of the Nizhniy Novgorod income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Squad1 Nov 2027
10 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Oct 2027
“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 Nizhniy Novgorod, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
A brace, and Vladislav Sarveli takes the afternoon — 8.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vladislav Sarveli provided it, and the 8.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market25 Oct 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Nizhniy Novgorod heard it as anything else.
Match23 Oct 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Tenton Yenne 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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Ninety minutes of Daniil Lesovoy at his very best
Marked 8.26. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Nizhniy Novgorod.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Soltmurad Bakaev, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Oct 2027
9 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.