71 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Semenov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ivan Gavrilov is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Amkar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutLeo Makatta knocks on the manager's door
MarketThe clock does Tommaso Corti’s negotiating for him
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Amkar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Grigory Zhilkin 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 shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Prokhorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Grigory Zhilkin is on it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Nika Lobjanidze has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Henrik Riise trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Semenov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $10.2M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The dugout31 Mar 2036
The manager has not finished forgetting Artem Babchuk's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Amkar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Amkar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Amkar will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Kirill Mogel’s negotiating for him
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Amkar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Semenov 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Amkar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Amkar could ask drops and the wages Leo Makatta can ask rise.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Amkar. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
71 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nika Lobjanidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ivan Gavrilov is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Amkar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Amkar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Maksim Kovalev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nikolai Lukyanov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Semenov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Amkar 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.
“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 Amkar, and it is not being withdrawn.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Amkar asked and Krasnodar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Semenov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Artem Babchuk's mistake
Metallurg will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Amkar were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings25 Feb 2036
A brace, and Henrik Riise takes the afternoon — 8.48
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Henrik Riise provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Amkar can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom25 Feb 2036
Amkar close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Everything agreed with Nizhniy Novgorod, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Metallurg tried to reorganise, Amkar did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
67 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krylya Sovetov have kept their man, and Amkar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Amkar pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
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.
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.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout11 Feb 2036
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kaluga waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Amkar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Amkar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Amkar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Amkar, 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 Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Amkar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Grigory Zhilkin is on it.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Alexandr Popov has written the date down.
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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. Amkar will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Amkar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Amkar rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Dinamo Bryansk had no answer to any of it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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 Amkar 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: Kirill Pluzhnikov. 4‑2 against Dinamo Bryansk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 33, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.73 beside his name.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Zenit Penza had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Amkar did not stop to explain themselves.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
65 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Amkar scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Leo Makatta. 2‑1 against Znamya Truda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Amkar will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
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 dugout10 Dec 2035
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.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Marked 8.08 — 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.
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Amkar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Krasnodar go through and Amkar go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Semenov 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The words a physio says slowly. 86 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Amkar can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Amkar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
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.
6 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.
Nobody at Amkar 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.
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kirill Pluzhnikov. 1‑0 against Rotor 2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Amkar have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
100 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Semenov 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.
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Amkar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vitaly Semenov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Amkar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Semenov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Amkar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Amkar can pretend not to have heard.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Amkar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Vitaly Semenov 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.
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.
121 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jeroen Janssen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Amkar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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.
Nobody at Amkar 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.
128 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 2, 26 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.60 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Diogo Machado did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
7.41, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
135 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
8 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Amkar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Vitaly Semenov 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.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vitaly Semenov provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Amkar asked and Akhmat Grozny said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Amkar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jeroen Janssen has agreed terms with Zvezda for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Semenov 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Amkar, another week without a signature from Tommaso Corti.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Amkar has been clear about where Jeroen Janssen stands, which is more than many ever get.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom10 Sep 2035
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 15 gone
That is the business done at Amkar 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.
Amkar asked and Spartak 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.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Artem Babchuk 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Amkar can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Amkar know which stage they are at.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vitaly Semenov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Amkar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Amkar can pretend not to have heard.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Irtysh have kept their man, and Amkar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Sep 2035
Artem Babchuk 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Henrik Riise 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.
A brace, and Yegor Pankov takes the afternoon — 8.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yegor Pankov provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yegor Pankov. 3‑2 against Dinamo Bryansk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Amkar asked and Akhmat Grozny said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Semenov 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Dinamo Bryansk spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
SKA Khabarovsk 2 will want this one forgotten quickly: 17‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Amkar were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.91 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Diogo Machado did not need any: 8.28, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Amkar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Stefan König decided nobody was going anywhere. Zenit Penza had no time left to answer.
Amkar asked and PSK Pervorechenskoe said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad13 Aug 2035
Artem Babchuk 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Stefan König 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Amkar has been clear about where Nikolay Zhuzhnev stands, which is more than many ever get.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Amkar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Vitaly Semenov has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Grigory Zhilkin 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 gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Amkar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Semenov 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Amkar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Jul 2035
Yegor Pankov 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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexandr Yegunov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Amkar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Amkar, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Artem Babchuk, marked 7.64, 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 ratings23 Jul 2035
Up for the corner, and Daniil Sekach delivers — 7.71
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Daniil Sekach scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Amkar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Alexandr Yegunov has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSK Pervorechenskoe have kept their man, and Amkar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Savely Yefimov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Everything agreed with Akhmat Grozny, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Grigory Zhilkin 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Pankov 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Amkar have made the call to Spartak Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It is arithmetic now, and the arithmetic is done. A summer of hard questions starts early at Amkar, and next season's fixture list reads very differently.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Everything agreed with PSK Pervorechenskoe, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Amkar asked and Spartak 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Semenov 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 loan enquiry to Spartak Moscow: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Everything was agreed with SKA Khabarovsk and then the doctor spoke. Amkar have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nart will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Leo Makatta has pre-agreed a move to Amkar, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Amkar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Pankov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The deal with SKA Khabarovsk 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Amkar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Pankov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Amkar know it.
In brief
Boardroom96% of the income goes out in wages at Amkar
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Amkar, another week without a signature from Dmitry Livanov.
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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Amkar can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Vitaly Semenov is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Olsen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Amkar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 May 2035
Artem Babchuk 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.
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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Amkar will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Semenov 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.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Hjalte Nøhr Villadsen is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Grigory Zhilkin 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad14 May 2035
Yegor Pankov 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Omer Muldur is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Amkar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Amkar could ask drops and the wages Vitaly Semenov can ask rise.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad7 May 2035
Yegor Pankov 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Alexandr Popov was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Olsen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Amkar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Semenov 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.
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.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Amkar and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 6 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Grigory Zhilkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Yegor Pankov 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.
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.
Nobody at Amkar 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
Grigory Zhilkin 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 manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
“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.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Yegor Pankov 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 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 Amkar know it.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Omer Muldur is on it.
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Amkar could ask drops and the wages Vitaly Semenov can ask rise.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Amkar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Semenov 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Artem Babchuk is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Amkar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stefan König trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Amkar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Semenov 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutVitaly Semenov loses the manager who believed in him
71 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Grigory Zhilkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Yegor Pankov 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.
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.
78 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Amkar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Grigory Zhilkin 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 Vitaly Semenov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Omer Muldur is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Amkar, another week without a signature from Mato Pjaca.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yegor Pankov signs something — a contract at Amkar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Livanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Amkar, another week without a signature from Vitaly Semenov.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Artem Babchuk is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Amkar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daley Babel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Amkar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Amkar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Amkar asked and Spartak 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.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Artem Babchuk 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 words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Position 6 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Amkar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom26 Feb 2035
Amkar close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Everything agreed with Akhmat Grozny, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Daniel Olsen has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Amkar can pretend not to have heard.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Moscow have kept their man, and Amkar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Pankov 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Omer Muldur is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Amkar, another week without a signature from Omer Muldur.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Artem Babchuk signs something — a contract at Amkar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Amkar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Pankov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
“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; Amkar are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Amkar have made the call to Lokomotiv Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Amkar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Semenov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A loan enquiry to Spartak Moscow: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Vitaly Semenov was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Danila Lukinykh trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Amkar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal with Dinamo Makhachkala 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.
Amkar asked and Krasnodar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Pankov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Grigory Zhilkin 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Yegor Pankov 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.
Nobody at Amkar 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Amkar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Semenov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Artem Babchuk is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Amkar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Grigory Zhilkin has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Amkar can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Pankov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Artem Kotov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Amkar, another week without a signature from Dmitry Livanov.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dmitry Livanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Amkar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Amkar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Babchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Artem Kotov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Amkar can pretend not to have heard.
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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Nobody at Amkar 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Amkar will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Yegor Pankov 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
8 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.
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.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Yegor Pankov 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Amkar can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Amkar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Amkar says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Amkar could ask drops and the wages Danila Lukinykh can ask rise.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Amkar can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Amkar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Semenov 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Pankov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The dugout27 Nov 2034
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Amkar are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Stefan König is living that version at Amkar, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Pankov 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
12 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.
Nobody at Amkar 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.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Paulo Silva has, at Amkar, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Pankov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Amkar know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Grigory Zhilkin is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Amkar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Amkar could ask drops and the wages Danila Lukinykh can ask rise.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Amkar can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danila Lukinykh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Amkar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Grigory Zhilkin 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 shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yegor Pankov 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.
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.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Henrik Riise is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Amkar will try very hard not to make too much of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Amkar can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Babchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Radomir Gagarin 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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Amkar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Babchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Amkar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Yegor Pankov 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Amkar are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 Amkar know it.
Nobody at Amkar 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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Owen Dijks did not need any: 8.36, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danila Lukinykh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Amkar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Danila Lukinykh has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“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; Amkar are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Grigory Zhilkin 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 had been thinking. Artem Babchuk 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 gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Pankov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Amkar, another week without a signature from Radomir Gagarin.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
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.
Dmitry Livanov 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexandr Yegunov. 2‑0 against Dinamo Stavropol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Amkar can pretend not to have heard.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSK Pervorechenskoe have kept their man, and Amkar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Babchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Amkar are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
Squad6 new faces, and Amkar are still learning each other
“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 Amkar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom11 Sep 2034
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 18 gone
That is the business done at Amkar 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.
Grigory Zhilkin 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 Artem Babchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Amkar can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: CSKA Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Amkar asked and Spartak 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikolay Zhuzhnev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Saturn waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Amkar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Amkar can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings28 Aug 2034
A brace, and Artem Babchuk takes the afternoon — 8.13
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Artem Babchuk provided it, and the 8.13 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.86, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Babchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.54 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSK Pervorechenskoe have kept their man, and Amkar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Aug 2034
Artem Babchuk 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.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Position 8 and 1 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Amkar can pretend not to have heard.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
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.
“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 Amkar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at CSKA Moscow is saying, and nobody at Amkar is enjoying the guessing.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Orel will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Dmitry Livanov has pre-agreed a move to Amkar, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Amkar asked and Spartak 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.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Artem Babchuk 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 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 Amkar know it.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Amkar may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings31 Jul 2034
Radomir Gagarin, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Kyzyltash moved on, Maxim Ortyashov reports back to Amkar, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Nikolay Zhuzhnev 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Babchuk 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Dinamo Stavropol had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“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 Amkar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thomas Linnes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Amkar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Pankov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Amkar people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Amkar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Amkar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with PSK Pervorechenskoe 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.
Grigory Zhilkin 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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Artem Babchuk 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniil Zimnin is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Amkar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Babchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Torpedo Vladimir will make the call about Maxim Ortyashov this week. Amkar have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
In brief
Boardroom88% of the income goes out in wages at Amkar
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Amkar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Amkar can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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 Amkar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thomas Linnes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Amkar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Daley Babel has just signed for Amkar, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Squad26 Jun 2034
Artem Babchuk 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.
A loan enquiry to PSK Pervorechenskoe: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Amkar can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Shakhter Donetsk waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Amkar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sarmat Khoziev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Amkar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Amkar have done the hard part with Neftekhimik, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSK Pervorechenskoe have kept their man, and Amkar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henrik Riise was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Artem Babchuk is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arsen Kanteev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Amkar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Amkar can pretend not to have heard.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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 manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
“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 dugout12 Jun 2034
Harry Holt 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 Amkar, and it is not being withdrawn.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Amkar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
“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 Amkar know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolay Zhuzhnev 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Amkar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
“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 Amkar, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Amkar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Grigory Zhilkin 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.
Nobody at Amkar 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.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Amkar could ask drops and the wages Arsen Kanteev can ask rise.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Artem Babchuk signs something — a contract at Amkar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.