Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikolai Myasnikov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Arsenal Tula the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Igor Gorbunov 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 Nicola Sansone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Successful dribbles: 36. 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arsenal Tula is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Igor Gorbunov 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 Nicola Sansone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Arsenal Tula told Lazar Balević something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicola Sansone trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Arsenal Tula 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 Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Legion scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oleg Isaenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Arsenal Tula the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Arsenal Tula is running low.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicola Sansone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Stepan Oganesyan. 1‑0 against Spartak Kostroma, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Position 18 and 5 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikolai Myasnikov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Arsenal Tula the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Igor Gorbunov 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 Nicola Sansone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
14 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Arsenal Tula lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Oleg Isaenko will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Arsenal Tula escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Arsenal Tula may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Up for the corner, and Oleg Isaenko delivers — 7.70
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Oleg Isaenko scored, was marked 7.70, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Arsenal Tula they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikhail Levashov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Arsenal Tula the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Arsenal Tula they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Arsenal Tula have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Arsenal Tula know now that the thought has arrived.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Amkar will make the call about Nicola Sansone this week. Arsenal Tula have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicola Sansone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Arsenal Tula people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Nicola Sansone 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. Vladimir Ivanov has just signed for Arsenal Tula, and for once the answer mattered.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dmitri Dolgikh after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
SquadWords at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dinamo Makhachkala waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Arsenal Tula is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Amkar moved on, Nicola Sansone reports back to Arsenal Tula, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Igor Gorbunov 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Sansone 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Amkar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Arsenal Tula is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Denis Grigorjev is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Arsenal Tula they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Igor Gorbunov 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Sansone 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.
Krylya Sovetov pay $62.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Arsenal Tula asked and Ufa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Shinnik had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Orenburg is saying, and nobody at Arsenal Tula is enjoying the guessing.
Igor Gorbunov 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 Nicola Sansone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rostov have kept their man, and Arsenal Tula go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 40. 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.
“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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Sokol for Mikhail Levashov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Arsenal Tula had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Rostov, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Igor Tursunov is living that version at Arsenal Tula, and it tends to show in the first month.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The shirt still fits. Igor Tursunov is back at Arsenal Tula, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
In brief
SquadLeon Sabua has improved at 28, which nobody expected
Boardroom4 academy graduates step up at Arsenal Tula
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Arsenal Tula they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kian Visser has gone, the accounts have $370.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arsenal Tula have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Spartak Moscow 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.
Arsenal Tula had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at KAMAZ, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Arsenal Tula asked and Zenit said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Baltika waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Arsenal Tula is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
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.
The deal that would have taken Nicola Sansone to Amkar has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Arsenal Tula with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Murom had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Arsenal Tula offered $620.0K; Akron said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Igor Gorbunov 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.
In brief
SquadNicola Sansone falls out with a teammate over standards
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Arsenal Tula have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Spartak Kostroma for Kian Visser was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The deal with Zenit 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AZ is saying, and nobody at Arsenal Tula is enjoying the guessing.
Nicola Sansone 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erving Botaka-Yoboma 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.
Nobody at Arsenal Tula 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
Igor Gorbunov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Sansone 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 Daniil Plotnikov is on it.
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arsenal Tula, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Dmitri Dolgikh has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arsenal Tula can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nicola Sansone 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 Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
In brief
The dugoutArtem Arutyunov has become a man the manager trusts
Igor Gorbunov 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 Nicola Sansone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arsenal Tula, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arsenal Tula, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Arsenal Tula 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula 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 Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arsenal Tula, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Arsenal Tula 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Dmitri Dolgikh has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nicola Sansone 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alexandr Putsko commits to Arsenal Tula for another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erving Botaka-Yoboma 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.
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.
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 squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Nicola Sansone is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
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 Ilja Grischenko is on 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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nicola Sansone 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Arsenal Tula will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Nicola Sansone was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Arsenal Tula has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicola Sansone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Arsenal Tula 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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arsenal Tula 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 Arsenal Tula 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 Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Arsenal Tula 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 Arsenal Tula, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Mikhail Levashov’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know 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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
Igor Gorbunov 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Sansone 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arsenal Tula, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Ilja Grischenko is on it.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Arsenal Tula can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
“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; Arsenal Tula are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Igor Gorbunov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Sansone 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arsenal Tula, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Alexey Markov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arsenal Tula have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Arsenal Tula know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicola Sansone trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Sansone is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
Igor Gorbunov 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexey Vakulich and Arsenal Tula agree another 3 years.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Sansone is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Grigorjev, and the manager let it.
Boardroom13 Mar 2028
105% of the income goes out in wages at Arsenal Tula
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 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.
“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 Arsenal Tula will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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 Ilja Grischenko is on it.
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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 15 on 29 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stepan Oganesyan and Arsenal Tula agree another 4 years.
Nicola Sansone 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 upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Arsenal Tula is running low.
0‑4 against Nizhniy Novgorod, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Everything was agreed with Krasnodar and then the doctor spoke. Arsenal Tula have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Arsenal Tula 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Torpedo Moscow waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Arsenal Tula is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Arsenal Tula have done the hard part with Krasnodar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Sansone 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 easiest signature of my career.” Denis Grigorjev and Arsenal Tula agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Konstantin Pliev.
In brief
SquadA last season at home is what Edimar is after
Arsenal Tula and Sochi have settled on $1.0M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Spartak Moscow is saying, and nobody at Arsenal Tula is enjoying the guessing.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Nicola Sansone 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.
Arsenal Tula asked and Zeleznicar Pancevo 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 Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Dmitri Dolgikh has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Roman Izotov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The deal with Akron 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.
Arsenal Tula have gone to Spartak Moscow with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexey Kuznetsov and Arsenal Tula agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Arsenal Tula is running low.
“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; Arsenal Tula are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicola Sansone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ufa have kept their man, and Arsenal Tula go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arsenal Tula will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Penchikov 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Dmitri Dolgikh after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
“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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Igor Gorbunov 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 Nicola Sansone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Arsenal Tula will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
Nicola Sansone 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Leon Sabua. 1‑0 against Yenisey, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Nobody at Arsenal Tula 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arsenal Tula will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Arsenal Tula
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Nicola Sansone 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erving Botaka-Yoboma 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Arsenal Tula pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Alexandr Putsko 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arsenal Tula will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Alexandr Putsko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Sansone 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Dmitri Dolgikh to a room that had heard them before.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arsenal Tula will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula 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 Daniil Penchikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arsenal Tula, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Shinnik were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arsenal Tula have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yaroslav Sosnikhin has, at Arsenal Tula, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Igor Gorbunov. 2‑0 against Shinnik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.13. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arsenal Tula will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Arsenal Tula
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
“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; Arsenal Tula are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Alexandr Putsko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arsenal Tula will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
“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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Arsenal Tula know it.
Nicola Sansone 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arsenal Tula will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arsenal Tula lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fakel go through and Arsenal Tula go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula 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 Daniil Penchikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
84 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Arsenal Tula lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arsenal Tula have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Arsenal Tula can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arsenal Tula 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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Arsenal Tula can tell you which week it ends in.
Nicola Sansone 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 Daniil Penchikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑4 to Nizhniy Novgorod, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Nicola Sansone 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 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kirill Bozhenov has his answer from Arsenal Tula; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Konstantin Pliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Arsenal Tula told Alexey Kuznetsov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Two goals and a mark of 9.11 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. Omar Minatulaev provided it, and the 8.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Nicola Sansone 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.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Arsenal Tula and Saturn in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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 21 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.
“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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexandr Putsko and Arsenal Tula agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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 Arsenal Tula know it.
Alexandr Putsko 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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Leon Sabua. 1‑0 against Neftekhimik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Arsenal Tula asked and PAOK 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 Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Denis Grigorjev is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Konstantin Pliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Arsenal Tula go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Arsenal Tula are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 20 gone
That is the business done at Arsenal Tula until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The deal that would have taken Roman Izotov to Rodina has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Arsenal Tula with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Alexandr Putsko 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Arsenal Tula 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Sansone 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.
“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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Arsenal Tula had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at APOEL, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Nicola Sansone 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. Frosinone have kept their man, and Arsenal Tula 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 Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Virtus Entella is saying, and nobody at Arsenal Tula is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula 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 Konstantin Pliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Denis Grigorjev is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Everything agreed with Virtus Entella, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Kian Visser 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Lokomotiv Moscow; Arsenal Tula go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Pablo Martínez has agreed terms with Fakel for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Alexandr Putsko 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Arsenal Tula, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Arsenal Tula have made the call to Wycombe Wanderers. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arsenal Tula have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Everything agreed with Trabzonspor, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Alexandr Putsko 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Anton Polorotov is living that version at Arsenal Tula, and it tends to show in the first month.
Arsenal Tula asked and Nizhniy Novgorod 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 Konstantin Pliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. Volga had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ilja Azyavin
Successful dribbles: 36. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akron have kept their man, and Arsenal Tula go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Arsenal Tula know 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 Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Danil Ryazanov from Rostov for $240.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Karmaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Mikhail Levashov
Kian Visser wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Kian Visser found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Chernomorets went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lokomotiv Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Arsenal Tula have gone to Rostov with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Chernomorets were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Successful dribbles: 38. 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Orenburg is saying, and nobody at Arsenal Tula is enjoying the guessing.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Alan Tsaraev was one of the reasons people came, and $2.8M does not replace that by itself.
Igor Gorbunov 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.
Arsenal Tula asked and Rostov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nazar Gusev 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Timur Zhamaletdinov was one of the reasons people came, and $240.0K does not replace that by itself.
The clubs have shaken hands with Lokomotiv Moscow; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The phone has started ringing about Alan Tsaraev again, and this time the name on the line is Astana. Arsenal Tula are listening politely and promising nothing.
Arsenal Tula had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Pobeda, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Alexandr Putsko 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. Rostov have kept their man, and Arsenal Tula go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
He is going to Akron, the club has $250.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Pobeda keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer went to Pobeda this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Leningradets did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $380.0K for Alexey Kuznetsov, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Kian Visser 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.
$3.3M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The offer from Lokomotiv Moscow for Alan Tsaraev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Akron waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Arsenal Tula is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
He is going to Dinamo Moscow, the club has $3.3M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Makhachkala is saying, and nobody at Arsenal Tula is enjoying the guessing.
Arsenal Tula have gone to Pobeda with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer went to Leningradets this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The offer from Dinamo Moscow for Miloš Brnović was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Timur Zhamaletdinov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
The chase for Nikita Bazilevskiy ended with $280.0K changing hands and Akron out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Arsenal Tula asked and Dinamo Makhachkala said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Igor Gorbunov 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Anton Polorotov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Arsenal Tula have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Karmaev 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Marat Tlekhugov is in the works
Igor Gorbunov 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erving Botaka-Yoboma 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.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Arsenal Tula would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Arsenal Tula. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tigran Avanesyan signs something — a contract at Arsenal Tula or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Dmitri Dolgikh has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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. Arsenal Tula will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Miloš Brnović 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 squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Miloš Brnović was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Arsenal Tula no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
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 did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Arsenal Tula will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Miloš Brnović was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
Thiago Sales 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Octavio Zapata trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Erving Botaka-Yoboma has written the date down.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Cristhian Subero may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Sales 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arsenal Tula, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
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.
“I did not go to SKA Khabarovsk to sit and watch. I want to come back to Arsenal Tula and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Thiago Sales trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Erving Botaka-Yoboma has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tigran Avanesyan signs something — a contract at Arsenal Tula or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
SquadIlja Azyavin is not doing himself any favours
MatchNothing left to play for but pride at Arsenal Tula
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arsenal Tula 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 Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Sales is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Arsenal Tula. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Dmitri Dolgikh has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arsenal Tula have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Miloš Brnović 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 Thiago Sales 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 Arsenal Tula, another week without a signature from Thiago Sales.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Arsenal Tula will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Igor Gorbunov 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.
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 Thiago Sales has written the date down.
Alexandr Putsko 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Thiago Sales 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 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.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
105% of the income goes out in wages at Arsenal Tula
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Arsenal Tula, and 2 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cristhian Subero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Arsenal Tula, another week without a signature from Mikhail Tsulaia.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arsenal Tula have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Miloš Brnović 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mark Savrasov 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Oleg Frolov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thiago Sales was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arsenal Tula, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Dmitri Dolgikh has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Miloš Brnović 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 Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Miloš Brnović was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ilja Kutepov 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Arsenal Tula, another week without a signature from Thiago Sales.
Igor Gorbunov 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 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 did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alexandr Melikhov has his answer from Arsenal Tula; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Erving Botaka-Yoboma has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Oleg Isaenko signs something — a contract at Arsenal Tula or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Questions about Ilja Azyavin on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arsenal Tula 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 Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konstantin Pliev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Arsenal Tula has been clear about where Kirill Bolshakov stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Miloš Brnović 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Ilja Kutepov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juve Stabia have kept their man, and Arsenal Tula go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Arsenal Tula know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arsenal Tula have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rostov have kept their man, and Arsenal Tula go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Alexandr Putsko reports back to Arsenal Tula with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arsenal Tula have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Arsenal Tula is running low.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Arsenal Tula close the window on a squad of their own making
5 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.
Alexandr Putsko 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.
“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; Arsenal Tula are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
$3.2M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
He is going to Astana, the club has $3.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
1 for Miloš Brnović, marked 7.57, 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.
Arsenal Tula offered $770.0K; Dinamo Moscow said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Kutepov 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Arsenal Tula people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chase for Ilja Grischenko ended with $1.4M changing hands and Kaluga out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ilja Grischenko has just signed for Arsenal Tula, and for once the answer mattered.
$770.0K on the table at Dinamo Moscow. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Miloš Brnović 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Ilja Grischenko from Kaluga for $1.4M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
The name of Edarlyn Reyes has come up in conversations Arsenal Tula were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The offer went to Kaluga this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$560.0K was the most the club would pay and SKA Khabarovsk were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rodion Plotnikov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arsenal Tula have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Akhmat Grozny is saying, and nobody at Arsenal Tula is enjoying the guessing.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Igor Gorbunov 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Omar Minatulaev has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Arsenal Tula have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Ilja Kutepov 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Igor Gorbunov. 1‑0 against Sokol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Arsenal Tula will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Neftekhimik scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
Igor Gorbunov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konstantin Pliev 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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 manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Dmitri Dolgikh to a room that had heard them before.
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 offer from Sampdoria for Kian Visser was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Alan Tsaraev delivers — 7.91
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alan Tsaraev scored, was marked 7.91, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Ilja Kutepov 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Dmitri Dolgikh kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Add another name to the list: Sampdoria have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kian Visser. The answer from Arsenal Tula has not changed — yet.
“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 Arsenal Tula know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Konstantin Pliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 89, against Yenisey, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as 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 Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Konstantin Pliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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 dugout28 Dec 2026
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Dmitri Dolgikh to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Leon Sabua and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
Igor Gorbunov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Kutepov 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dmitri Dolgikh after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilja Azyavin, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Tigran Avanesyan'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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
In brief
Player ratingsEdarlyn Reyes beats them one at a time
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arsenal Tula have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konstantin Pliev 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniil Raspopin 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vladlen Demidov 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Edarlyn Reyes. 1‑0 against Torpedo Moscow, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Oleg Isaenko 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 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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Miloš Brnović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konstantin Pliev 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Kian Visser is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Arsenal Tula told Cristhian Subero something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A brace, and Edarlyn Reyes takes the afternoon — 8.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Edarlyn Reyes provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Arsenal Tula know 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 Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Arsenal Tula and Volga, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Kutepov 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
257% of the income goes out in wages at Arsenal Tula
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.