The Baltika Sentinel
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Ruslan Slavin, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Stefan Kovač pops up at the right end — 7.69
7.69, 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Fahd Moufi signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fahd Moufi and Baltika agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Baltika
Maxim Petrov 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Home is on Nathan Gassama's mind
“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; Baltika are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match1 Aug 2026
Stefan Kovač the difference as Baltika beat Spartak Moscow
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Stefan Kovač. 2‑1 against Spartak Moscow, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
Baltika supporters have found a favourite in Ruslan Slavin
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ruslan Slavin 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Baltika
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nathan Gassama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 months and counting on Fahd Moufi
Still no offer on the table, and Fahd Moufi’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
In brief
- The dugout A satisfied Nikolay Sidorenko
- The dugout Brayan Gil asks for a word with the manager
- Market Baltika and Konstantin Shiltsov are talking past each other