61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Avangard lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Avangard will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Avangard have lost him in all but the paperwork.
7 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.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Yegor Balitskiy, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Danila Knyazev 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.
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Avangard lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Avangard will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Kuban is saying, and nobody at Avangard 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Tambov have kept their man, and Avangard go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 114% of everything Avangard earn
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Avangard lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Avangard 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 Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Strogino for Savely Borisov 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.
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.
The deal with Yenisey 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Avangard can tell you which week it ends in.
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Avangard lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Shmyhelskyi 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 Artyom Zinchenko, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Vladislav Tikhomirov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Dinamo Kirov have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The words a physio says slowly. 89 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Savely Borisov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Jakub Jakimiuk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Vladislav Tikhomirov left the room before anybody could ask which.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deal with Kuban 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Avangard
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Maksim Markov 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.
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Avangard had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Yenisey, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Valerii Yurchuk 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 Bohdan Shmyhelskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 111% of everything Avangard earn
110 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Avangard lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vladislav Tikhomirov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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.
Danila Knyazev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Shmyhelskyi 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.
Avangard have made the call to Dinamo Bryansk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avangard they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Danila Knyazev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Dmitry Zakharov is on it.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Everything agreed with Dinamo Kirov, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Vladivostok: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Slobodchikov signs something — a contract at Avangard or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Valerii Yurchuk 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 Bohdan Shmyhelskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
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.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Daniil Kamenev'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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vladislav Tikhomirov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
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 change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Maxim Slobodchikov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Avangard is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Danila Knyazev 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 may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He 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.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Denis Traigel are not good
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.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Valerii Yurchuk 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 Bohdan Shmyhelskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $4.4M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
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.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Avangard would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vladislav Tikhomirov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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.
Danila Knyazev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Shmyhelskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avangard 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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Danila Knyazev 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Avangard will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yegor Gulyaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
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 Dmitry Zakharov is on it.
The mood at Avangard has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Valerii Yurchuk 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.
“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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Jakimiuk 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Shmyhelskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $4.2M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
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.
Rustam Berzegov 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Danila Knyazev signs something — a contract at Avangard or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Danila Knyazev 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Shmyhelskyi 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dmitry Kumsarov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Daniil Kamenev'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.
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 Rustam Berzegov is on it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vladislav Tikhomirov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Savely Borisov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The 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 change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Maxim Slobodchikov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Denis Traigel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Avangard have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Danila Knyazev signs something — a contract at Avangard or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yegor Balitskiy is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Ali Al-Memari 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.
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 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 Rustam Berzegov 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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Savely Borisov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Shmyhelskyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The mood at Avangard has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Zvezda had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Avangard know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Avangard people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Slobodchikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yegor Balitskiy. 1‑0 against Kvant, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 124% of the Avangard income
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avangard they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal with Dinamo Vladivostok 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leningradets have kept their man, and Avangard go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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 Maxim Slobodchikov.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vladislav Tikhomirov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Volgar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Avangard is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Danila Knyazev 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.
Avangard asked and Lokomotiv Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Gavrilenko, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Denis Traigel
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Denis Traigel has come out of that comparison in the side, and Avangard have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Maxim Slobodchikov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Avangard have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kuban Holding had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard 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 Maxim Slobodchikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard 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 Bohdan Shmyhelskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniil Grada will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match15 Jan 2028
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Avangard. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Danila Knyazev 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Shmyhelskyi 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ali Al-Memari. 2‑1 against Zenit Penza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Artyom Zinchenko will call it something else in private.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Avangard have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Maxim Slobodchikov, marked 7.96, 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.
Rotor 2 made Avangard work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Jakimiuk 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 dugout10 Jan 2028
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.” Vladislav Tikhomirov kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Avangard can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yegor Gulyaev did not need any: 8.45, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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. Avangard will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Danila Knyazev 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.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Yegor Gulyaev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard 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 Bohdan Shmyhelskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ali Al-Memari has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avangard they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakub Jakimiuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Avangard man
Arsenal Tula 2 will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Avangard were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 9.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard 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 Bohdan Shmyhelskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The mood at Avangard has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vladislav Tikhomirov 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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Shmyhelskyi 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.
Dmitry Zakharov 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 paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dmitry Zakharov provided it, and the 9.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Danila Knyazev 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.
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Avangard and SKA Khabarovsk 2 in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniil Grada will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Valerii Yurchuk 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Shmyhelskyi 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.
Position 10, 15 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vladislav Tikhomirov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Avangard 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Avangard told Yegor Gulyaev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dmitry Kumsarov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Avangard 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.
Spartak Tambov next, and one man in the Avangard dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Shmyhelskyi 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 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 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 dugout1 Nov 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 Vladislav Tikhomirov to a room that had heard them before.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Avangard they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yegor Gulyaev did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Daniil Grada has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Danila Knyazev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Shmyhelskyi 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.
11 combined actions and 6.90. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It finished 1-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
SquadJakub Jakimiuk falls out with a teammate over standards
The mood at Avangard has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Danila Knyazev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Shmyhelskyi 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 respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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 Rustam Berzegov is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Avangard know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Avangard. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Avangard, another week without a signature from Alexandr Bazhenov.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard 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 Bohdan Shmyhelskyi 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.
Danila Knyazev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Jakimiuk 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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Avangard, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Avangard 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.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Valerii Yurchuk 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.
At 19 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Maxim Slobodchikov. 3‑1 against Zenit Penza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Shmyhelskyi 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Yegor Gulyaev has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.06 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Avangard lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Avangard close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 9 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.
Danila Knyazev 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.
Avangard asked and Chaika said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Avangard lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at SKA Khabarovsk is saying, and nobody at Avangard is enjoying the guessing.
At 19 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.
Alexey Sukharev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. SKA Khabarovsk have kept their man, and Avangard go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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 words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
102 minutes played. Rustam Berzegov found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Neftyanik went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.06, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Daniil Grada, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.90
A mark of 7.90 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.47 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.95 for the rest of 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The mood at Avangard has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
7.69, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The offer from Textilschik for Yegor Yunusov 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Avangard and Rodina M in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at SKA Khabarovsk is saying, and nobody at Avangard is enjoying the guessing.
Alexey Sukharev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Neftyanik have kept their man, and Avangard 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 Bohdan Shmyhelskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Matvey Pershin is in the works
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
7.87, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Shmyhelskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Alexandr Khrebtov 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.
Avangard have made the call to Neftyanik. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
SKA Khabarovsk 2 will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Avangard were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dmitry Zakharov provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Denis Cheremisin, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Avangard have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Avangard have done the hard part with Leningradets, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Avangard had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Kuban, 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals in one match, Dmitry Zakharov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Avangard and SKA Khabarovsk 2.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Murom moved on, Vladislav Tereshkin reports back to Avangard, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Alexey Sukharev 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakub Jakimiuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Kirill Mitin 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Tereshkin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with SKA Khabarovsk is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Alexey Sukharev 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.
Avangard offered $98.0K; Leningradets 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Valerii Yurchuk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vladislav Tikhomirov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Avangard have done the hard part with Sokol, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Avangard asked and Kuban said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Jakimiuk 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 Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Avangard have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Anton Novikov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Valerii Yurchuk 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Jakimiuk 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.
Avangard have made the call to Sokol. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexey Sukharev's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It 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.
The offer went to Volgar 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.
Danila Knyazev 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Jakimiuk 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Murom will make the call about Vladislav Tereshkin this week. Avangard have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Danila Knyazev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The window is open, and with it the only month of the year when a supporter’s hopes are limited by nothing but arithmetic. The board know the arithmetic; the supporters know the hopes.
At 19 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 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.
Alexey Sukharev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Danila Knyazev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Avangard know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vladislav Tikhomirov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Position 6 and 13 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Shmyhelskyi 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.
Vitaly Bondarev 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 Jakub Jakimiuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 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 Avangard, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Tomasz Tomasik has written the date down.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Vitaly Bondarev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Jakimiuk 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard 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 Jakub Jakimiuk 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Vitaly Bondarev 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 May 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Jakimiuk 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vladislav Tikhomirov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Vitaly Bondarev 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 Jakub Jakimiuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexey Sukharev'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.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Vitaly Bondarev was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Shmyhelskyi 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 Avangard, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakub Jakimiuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexey Sukharev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Vitaly Bondarev 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 Ali Al-Memari 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 Avangard, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vladislav Tikhomirov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
At 19 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.
Vitaly Bondarev 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.
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 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.
The mood at Avangard has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Avangard will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Anton Novikov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Avangard know it.
In brief
The dugoutJakub Jakimiuk asks for a word with the manager
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“I watch every Avangard game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Irkutsk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
2 appearances, 0 clean sheets, and a goalkeeper no further forward than the day he left. Whether that belongs to him, to the club that borrowed him or to the people who arranged it is the argument Avangard will have this month.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bohdan Shmyhelskyi signs something — a contract at Avangard or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Rustam Berzegov has written the date down.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Vitaly Bondarev 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jakub Jakimiuk, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Ali Al-Memari 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
The Avangard dressing room has split into 4 groups
Squads form friendships and that is healthy; this is not that. 4 separate groups, 3 players belonging to none of them, and a set of tables at lunch that have stopped rearranging themselves. It very rarely fixes itself.
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 2 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Avangard argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Khrebtov signs something — a contract at Avangard or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Avangard will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vladislav Tikhomirov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Vitaly Bondarev 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.
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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Avangard 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nosta have kept their man, and Avangard go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Avangard, and 2 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Al-Memari 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Avangard will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Something was said to Daniil Sedov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artem Gavrilenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Avangard will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they 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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Neftekhimik, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Vitaly Bondarev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sokol have kept their man, and Avangard go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Jakimiuk 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 year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Avangard would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Avangard can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Vitaly Bondarev 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.
Avangard asked and Chelyabinsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Jakimiuk 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Avangard, and 7 appearances in 24 say he has earned the hearing.
“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 Avangard will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Avangard would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Avangard asked and Spartak Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Ali Al-Memari 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.
Avangard have made the call to Arsenal Tula. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakub Jakimiuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bohdan Shmyhelskyi signs something — a contract at Avangard or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Avangard. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Position 6 and 13 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Vitaly Bondarev 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Jakimiuk 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 Avangard, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Vitaly Bondarev 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 Ali Al-Memari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Avangard game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Irkutsk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 Avangard will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Avangard can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Savely Borisov is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Jakimiuk 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 did not go to Uralets-TS to sit and watch. I want to come back to Avangard and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexey Sukharev'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.
At 18 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakub Jakimiuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Vitaly Bondarev 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Avangard can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Khrebtov, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Yegor Yunusov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakub Jakimiuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Tomasz Tomasik 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Avangard, and 5 appearances in 16 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 Alexandr Khrebtov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Avangard says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Avangard will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard 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.
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 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 Avangard, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Avangard have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Vitaly Bondarev 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Jakimiuk 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 agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Avangard is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Vitaly Bondarev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Al-Memari 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Avangard 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Avangard has been clear about where Yegor Yunusov stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexey Sukharev's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Avangard know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Vitaly Bondarev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Jakimiuk 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.
A 1‑0 win over Dinamo Vladivostok, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
“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 Avangard, and 5 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Two goals and a mark of 8.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Avangard and Torpedo Miass in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakub Jakimiuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
At 19 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Tereshkin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Avangard the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Vitaly Bondarev 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Avangard 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.
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
14 new faces, and Avangard are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I watch every Avangard game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Uralets-TS runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Avangard told Vitaly Bondarev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Nobody at Avangard 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.
Murom next, and one man in the Avangard dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Vitaly Bondarev 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ali Al-Memari 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: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Vladislav Tikhomirov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Avangard dressing room was either.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Irtysh? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.