From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 41. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market19 Oct 2026
Aymane Mourid hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Baltika can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Maxim Petrov in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Nathan Gassama 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Baltika
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Baltika can tell you which week it ends in.
Match17 Oct 2026
Akhmat left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kirill Nikishin, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Baltika
Eldar Ćivić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market12 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dmitri Drozdov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Viktor Kombarov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Vitaly Shitov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Fahd Moufi
7.31, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Baltika had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Maxim Petrov asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Market12 Oct 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Yuriy Afanasyev after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Sep 2026
Baltika march on in the cup
Dinamo Stavropol are out and Baltika go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
Anger at Baltika spills outside the ground
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Baltika
A 0‑3 beating by Dinamo Moscow was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Eldar Ćivić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Baltika
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mingiyan Beveev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad5 Oct 2026
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mingiyan Beveev, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Boardroom
Wages swallow 108% of the Baltika income
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Squad
Florian Brügmann signs on for more
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Baltika dressing room in a hurry
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Baltika's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Baltika has to find a result from somewhere.
Match28 Sep 2026
Baltika sink to position 15
3 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Eldar Ćivić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mingiyan Beveev 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Late, late show earns Baltika a point
Minute 87, against Lokomotiv Moscow, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Baltika are still strangers to each other
13 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kirill Davidenko, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match19 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Baltika's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Baltika has to find a result from somewhere.
Market21 Sep 2026
Aymane Mourid hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Baltika can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Baltika
Eldar Ćivić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aymane Mourid and Baltika agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match19 Sep 2026
Yegor Golenkov scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Rubin, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Evgeny Latyshonok, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Sep 2026
The bid was some way short and Baltika did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Baltika's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Baltika has to find a result from somewhere.
Match12 Sep 2026
Baltika cannot find the net
7 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Baltika close the window on a squad of their own making
21 in and 17 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Stanislav Erofeev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Grigory Kulikov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Baltika
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mingiyan Beveev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Baltika
Chinonso Offor 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Sep 2026
6 matches without a win for Baltika
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Baltika are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 7.83 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match5 Sep 2026
6 matches without a goal for Baltika
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Market7 Sep 2026
The chase for Igor Andreev ended with $720.0K changing hands and Rodina out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Maxim Shnaptsev 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A move Igor Andreev would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Igor Andreev is living that version at Baltika, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match5 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Krasnodar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mingiyan Beveev 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Baltika
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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Rodina, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Match29 Aug 2026
The goals have deserted Baltika
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Baltika can tell you which week it ends in.
Market31 Aug 2026
The chase for Mikhail Schetinin ended with $550.0K changing hands and Lokomotiv Moscow out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Baltika
Maxim Petrov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Kirill Stepanov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
In brief
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Baltika
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Squad
The formation has left Vitaly Shitov behind
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Baltika did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Lokomotiv Moscow, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Baltika's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Baltika has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Baltika
Eldar Ćivić 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Baltika cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market24 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done: Vitaly Shitov joins from Tyumen in a deal worth $160.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Dmitry Starodub has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Baltika have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Stepanov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Aug 2026
Baltika say no — this time
The offer from Lokomotiv Moscow for Brayan Gil 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Central Córdoba SdE did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.0M for Lucas Varaldo, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Baltika had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Santos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Baltika
Eldar Ćivić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$160.0K on the table at Tyumen. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Baltika spend $1.0M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.0M for Lucas Varaldo, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Match15 Aug 2026
Baltika cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mingiyan Beveev 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Baltika have done the hard part with Central Córdoba SdE, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market10 Aug 2026
Baltika say no — this time
The offer from Shinnik for Ivan Kukushkin 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Baltika have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Brayan Gil and Baltika agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Eldar Ćivić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Brayan Gil
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Semyon Lukin has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ilya Toporov 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Krylya Sovetov left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Central Córdoba SdE 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fahd Moufi and Baltika agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Eldar Ćivić in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Baltika asked and AEK 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 dugout3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Evgeny Latyshonok, and the manager let it.
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Spartak Moscow, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mingiyan Beveev 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 months and counting on Fahd Moufi
Still no offer on the table, and Fahd Moufi’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.