Marked for Stefan Kovač
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Defensive actions: 39, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Market1 Feb 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 The request is on a desk at Baltika, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Baltika may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market1 Feb 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Baltika have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Defensive actions: 25, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad1 Feb 2027
78 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
“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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Brayan Gil is named among the best
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. Baltika will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The medical room confirms 110 days on the sidelines for Vladimir Khubulov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Eldar Ćivić 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Rubin left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Stefan Kovač
“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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The Brayan Gil story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Brayan Gil signs something — a contract at Baltika or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
A mark of 5.74 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Dec 2026
Only the photograph left for Andrey Mendel
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrey Mendel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Baltika the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Eldar Ćivić 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Dec 2026
CSKA Moscow left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
133% of the income goes out in wages at Baltika
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match24 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Baltika
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Derik Lacerda 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Brayan Gil’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Baltika.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
One of those days for Brayan Gil
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.52, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Alexandr Filin
“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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match10 Oct 2026
10 matches without a win for Baltika
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Baltika are no longer polite ones.
Market12 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Eldar Ćivić 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Eldar Ćivić 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Marked 8.23 — 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 ratings12 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match10 Oct 2026
Honours even between Baltika and Sochi
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.