The phone has started ringing about Tenton Yenne again, and this time the name on the line is Apollon. Baltika are listening politely and promising nothing.
Maxim Petrov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tenton Yenne 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.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tenton Yenne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Baltika 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 Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Gassama 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 Baltika game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Naftan runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nazar Maslov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Baltika dressing room was 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.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Baltika lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tenton Yenne. 1‑0 against Nizhniy Novgorod, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Tenton Yenne 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.
“I watch every Baltika game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Naftan runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
1 for Ilja Petrov, marked 7.89, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
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.
A point taken on 96 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.
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 clubs have shaken hands with Rostov; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Aymane Mourid delivers — 7.97
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Aymane Mourid scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.88 for the rest of it.
The fee is $860.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Orenburg drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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 Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$240.0K was the most the club would pay and Zenit were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Baltika asked and CSKA 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.
Krylya Sovetov will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Baltika were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A brace, and Brayan Gil takes the afternoon — 9.20
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Brayan Gil provided it, and the 9.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Arsenal Tula for Maxim Petrov 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.
1 for Aymane Mourid, marked 7.69, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Stefan Kovač delivers — 7.74
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Stefan Kovač scored, was marked 7.74, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $311.5K — a club that wants Vyacheslav Karavaev enough to be asked twice.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Aguilas Doradas is saying, and nobody at Baltika is enjoying the guessing.
Baltika have gone to Zenit 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.
In brief
Player ratingsA hand in 2 of them from Maxim Petrov — 7.79