“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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Baltika will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Miro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Baltika will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxim Rudakov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Baltika the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Begun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Baltika will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilja Dyatlov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Baltika the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika 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 Dmitry Begun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
Fahd Moufi is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nobody at Baltika 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.
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.
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.
Nobody at Baltika will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Baltika, and both men came out saying it was fine.
19 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Baltika the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“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.
Fahd Moufi 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Begun 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 Baltika, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Baltika they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Irakly Manelov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
This is not rotation. Ruslan Apekov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Baltika is pretending otherwise.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Begun is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ruslan Chobanov is on it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Baltika is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Baltika have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Maxim Shnaptsev 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 will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
In brief
The dugoutRustam Yatimov has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Begun is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Baltika will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Dmitry Begun falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Baltika know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Baltika they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nizhniy Novgorod have kept their man, and Baltika go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Baltika will try again when the window opens; Dinamo Moscow may not be selling by then.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Baltika will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Nobody at Baltika 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Łukasz Piontek
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilja Dyatlov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Baltika the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Baltika ran out of time with Spartak Kostroma. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Irakly Manelov 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Dmitry Begun falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Baltika game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Liepaja runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Maxim Rudakov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rodina waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Baltika is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Baltika can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Spartak Kostroma 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.
This is not rotation. Alex Fernandes has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Baltika is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Baltika close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 1 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Daniiar Üsenov has, at Baltika, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Baltika people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The offer from Spartak Kostroma for Ilja Dyatlov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $450.0K — a club that wants Evgeny Bolotov enough to be asked twice.
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.
$420.0K on the table at Orenburg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Volga waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Baltika is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Humoyunmirzo Iminov has, at Baltika, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Baltika have gone to Nizhniy Novgorod with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Irakly Manelov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Kostroma have kept their man, and Baltika go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Begun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Akron had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Baltika 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 Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Baltika asked and Sochi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lev Shuvalov after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Begun is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lev Shuvalov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Krylya Sovetov in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Irakly Manelov signs something — a contract at Baltika or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
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.
Fahd Moufi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Dmitry Begun falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gamid Agalarov. 2‑1 against Rubin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.18, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
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.” Lev Shuvalov kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Baltika 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.
0‑3 to CSKA Moscow, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Irakly Manelov 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Baltika, and 0 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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 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.
$8.0M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
He is going to Olimpia, the club has $8.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Dmitry Begun falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Lev Shuvalov after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Irakly Manelov 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Baltika are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
0‑3 against Dinamo Moscow, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Irakly Manelov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Dmitry Begun 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 Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Dmitry Begun falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Alex Fernandes is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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 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.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Torpedo Moscow, and it could have been more.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
A brace, and Brayan Gil takes the afternoon — 8.83
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Brayan Gil provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alex Fernandes wants continental football; whether Baltika can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Torpedo Moscow spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Irakly Manelov 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 Dmitry Begun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Torpedo Moscow in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nathan Gassama signs something — a contract at Baltika or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Baltika, 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 Oleg Smirnov has written the date down.
Irakly Manelov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alex Fernandes. 3‑1 against Rostov, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Begun 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Rostov spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.13, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Lev Shuvalov, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Fahd Moufi 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 Baltika, and 0 appearances in 8 say he has earned the hearing.
Position 11, 17 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.” Lev Shuvalov after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Baltika 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.
Irakly Manelov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Dmitry Begun falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mikhail Ryadno has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilja Dyatlov, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Dmitry Begun
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Marked 7.20. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Lev Shuvalov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Baltika dressing room was either.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Irakly Manelov 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 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 Baltika know it.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Begun 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: Brayan Gil. 1‑0 against Akhmat, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Irakly Manelov 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 at Baltika will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Brayan Gil signs something — a contract at Baltika or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Akhmat next, and one man in the Baltika dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Oleg Smirnov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Dinamo Barnaul are out and Baltika go through, 3‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
A brace, and Ruslan Apekov takes the afternoon — 8.05
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ruslan Apekov provided it, and the 8.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Marked 6.75 on 15 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Begun was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gamid Agalarov, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Oct 2028
6 new faces, and Baltika 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.
Nobody at Baltika 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.
In brief
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Lev Shuvalov on the draw
Irakly Manelov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Dmitry Begun falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Irakly Manelov'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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lev Shuvalov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Baltika, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
1 for Nathan Gassama, marked 7.89, 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alex Fernandes wants continental football; whether Baltika can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Irakly Manelov 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 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Baltika 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 Baltika 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. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Baltika go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Dmitry Begun 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The dugoutRuslan Chobanov has become a man the manager trusts
111Edition
The Baltika Sentinel
11 Sep 2028
From our football correspondentUneasy
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 21 gone
That is the business done at Baltika 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Ivan Kukushkin is a Baltika player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ivan Kukushkin has, at Baltika, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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 Fahd Moufi is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Baltika know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Gamid Agalarov had done his part in building a 3-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and CSKA Moscow were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mingiyan Beveev had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gamid Agalarov provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Baltika have done the hard part with Shinnik, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rodina have kept their man, and Baltika go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Spartak Kostroma waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Baltika is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Rotor for Sergey Varatynov 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.
Dinamo Makhachkala wanted more than $2.6M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Irakly Manelov 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.
$120.0K on the table at Dinamo Makhachkala. 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 terraces28 Aug 2028
Baltika spend $2.2M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $2.2M for Miro, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ivan Belikov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have shaken hands with Dinamo Makhachkala; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chaika have kept their man, and Baltika go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$120.0K was the most the club would pay and Dinamo Makhachkala were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Marked 8.04 — 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Orenburg had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nikita Demchenko is living that version at Baltika, and it tends to show in the first month.
The offer went to Dinamo Makhachkala 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.
Baltika asked and Anderlecht said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Baltika can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sokol waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Baltika is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have shaken hands with Sokol; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Baltika have done the hard part with Spartak Kostroma, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Baltika asked and Dinamo Makhachkala said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Baltika offered $3.1M; Dinamo Makhachkala 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 fee is $1.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Nizhniy Novgorod drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Irakly Manelov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shinnik have kept their man, and Baltika go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Yaroslav Krashevskiy was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.7M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Gamid Agalarov decided nobody was going anywhere. Torpedo Moscow had no time left to answer.
Everything agreed with Nizhniy Novgorod, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Baltika have gone to Dinamo Makhachkala with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Add another name to the list: Legia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Brayan Gil. The answer from Baltika has not changed — yet.
The fee is $800.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Torpedo Moscow drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Baltika can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Baltika people have started saying his name in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Baltika have done the hard part with Torpedo Moscow, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Baltika offered $1.9M; Spartak Kostroma 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.
Fahd Moufi 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.
Baltika have gone to Shinnik with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Baltika
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 name of Mikhail Volkov has come up in conversations Baltika were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Aleksei Stolyarov 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dmitry Tokarev 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.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and Baltika are still learning each other
$16.0M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The offer from Spartak Kostroma for Sergey Varatynov 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
He is going to Avaí, the club has $16.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Baltika have gone to Spartak Kostroma with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Baltika have gone to Nizhniy Novgorod with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chernomorets waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Baltika is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Baltika hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Baltika will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Moscow have kept their man, and Baltika go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Baltika are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
$78.0K was the most the club would pay and Volga were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sokol waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Baltika is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Krylya Sovetov 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.
$450.0K on the table at Dinamo Moscow. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Irakly Manelov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Baltika will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nathan Gassama signs something — a contract at Baltika or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Oleg Smirnov a promise
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Volga waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Baltika is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
$3.6M on the table at CSKA Moscow. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Baltika have gone to Ufa with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“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 Baltika know it.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Baltika lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Irakly Manelov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Baltika will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Irakly Manelov 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 Nathan Gassama 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 Baltika, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Baltika will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Brayan Gil signs something — a contract at Baltika or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Baltika lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Sergey Volkov 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 Nathan Gassama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Fahd Moufi is on it.
22 appearances at Lokomotiv Moscow and the goals have stopped going in. Baltika lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nathan Gassama signs something — a contract at Baltika 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 Baltika. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Baltika have no good answer.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Baltika lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alex Fernandes wants continental football; whether Baltika can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Robert Renan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Kirill Obonin is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Baltika know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 51 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 want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Baltika hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Baltika is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Sergey Volkov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Gassama is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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 Baltika would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
Irakly Manelov 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Gassama is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Baltika will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Brayan Gil signs something — a contract at Baltika or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 66 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have 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 Baltika know it.
Irakly Manelov 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 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 trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Baltika has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nathan Gassama signs something — a contract at Baltika 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 Baltika. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Baltika lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nathan Gassama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Baltika 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Baltika know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Baltika lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yaroslav Arbuzov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Baltika the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Baltika can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
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 Nikitin is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
Sergey Volkov 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 at Baltika will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Brayan Gil signs something — a contract at Baltika or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Oleg Smirnov has written the date down.
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Baltika lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Baltika have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Sergey Volkov 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.
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 Baltika, and both men came out saying it was fine.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Baltika lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Baltika, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Gassama is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Baltika 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Baltika know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Baltika. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
112 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Baltika lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Baltika they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alex Fernandes wants continental football; whether Baltika can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Fahd Moufi 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 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 words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marquinhos wants continental football; whether Baltika can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nathan Gassama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Baltika asked and Shinnik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Brayan Gil signs something — a contract at Baltika or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
128 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Baltika lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Baltika have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Baltika are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Baltika asked and Ufa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Baltika will try again when the window opens; Ufa may not be selling by then.
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 Fahd Moufi is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 135 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Molde had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
39 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Transfer targets28 Feb 2028
$660.0K settles it between the clubs for Ivan Lomaev
Ufa have accepted the money. What Baltika do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Baltika may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Baltika until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The words a physio says slowly. 143 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Baltika, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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 want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Baltika hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Baltika can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Irakly Manelov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Gassama 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.
Baltika asked and Rubin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alex Fernandes. 2‑1 against Orenburg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Alex Fernandes was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
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 Mingiyan Beveev.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Legia moved on, Brayan Gil reports back to Baltika, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Baltika have lost him in all but the paperwork.
7.88, 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.
Irakly Manelov 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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Baltika will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The phone has started ringing about Brayan Gil again, and this time the name on the line is Legia. Baltika are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nathan Gassama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Baltika go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Shnaptsev, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 Jan 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 1‑2 Lev Shuvalov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Fahd Moufi 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.24 — 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.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Lev Shuvalov, on a 4‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Maxim Shnaptsev 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 Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Fernandes is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Nathan Gassama'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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Baltika told Maxim Shnaptsev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Baltika is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Irakly Manelov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Baltika, and it is not being withdrawn.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Baltika had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Maxim Rudakov 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Gassama 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.
24 games, 8 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Baltika now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lev Shuvalov after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Nathan Gassama
Irakly Manelov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Ruslan Apekov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Lev Shuvalov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Yaroslav Arbuzov has agreed terms with Rubin for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Akhmat were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Baltika 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 Nathan Gassama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 1‑0 win over Akhmat, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Marquinhos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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 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 Baltika know it.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Lev Shuvalov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The offer from Cerro Porteno 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yaroslav Arbuzov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Baltika the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Baltika are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nathan Gassama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Lev Shuvalov on the draw
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Baltika, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nathan Gassama scored, was marked 7.41, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
Maxim Shnaptsev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lev Shuvalov after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Fahd Moufi is on it.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Gassama is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
The medical room confirms 26 days on the sidelines for Fedor Lunev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Ruslan Apekov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Baltika would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Rostov next, and one man in the Baltika dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Irakly Manelov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Irakly Manelov 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Gassama 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ruslan Apekov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 6.84, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Baltika can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.97 on the card, and the Baltika support went home talking about one name.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeremiah Julius 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 dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Lev Shuvalov kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
7.57, 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 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.
Ruslan Apekov 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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Baltika can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nathan Gassama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Maxim Rudakov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Maxim Rudakov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Akron in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Irakly Manelov 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.
Krylya Sovetov left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Ruslan Apekov 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Fahd Moufi is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Baltika, and both men came out saying it was fine.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Baltika lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nathan Gassama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Baltika told Marquinhos something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Fahd Moufi scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Irakly Manelov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Brayan Gil 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mingiyan Beveev has his answer from Baltika; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Baltika, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ruslan Angutaev provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Baltika offered $12.2M; Foolad 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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Baltika may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Baltika close the window on a squad of their own making
21 in and 20 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $14.2M — a club that wants Isaac Solet enough to be asked twice.
Baltika had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Neftchi, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Irakly Manelov 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Ivan Belikov reports back to Baltika with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ruslan Chobanov has, at Baltika, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marquinhos wants continental football; whether Baltika can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Eldar Ćivić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Gassama 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.
Baltika asked and Krylya Sovetov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mikhail Ryadno is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Baltika have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Gil Vicente keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Baltika have gone to Chaika with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The phone has started ringing about Ilja Svinov again, and this time the name on the line is Lokomotiv Moscow. Baltika are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Baltika have lost him in all but the paperwork.
$9.6M on the table at Gil Vicente. 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 offer from Dinamo Brest for Maxim Saveljev 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.
Fahd Moufi 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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.91 beside his name.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Marquinhos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The phone has started ringing about Nikolay Titkov again, and this time the name on the line is Torpedo-BelAZ. Baltika are listening politely and promising nothing.
Everything agreed with Hajduk Split, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Maxim Petrov 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Gassama 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.
200 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Maxim Petrov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 Baltika know it.
Irakly Manelov 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Baltika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Gassama 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Maxim Petrov has his answer from Baltika; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Baltika people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Torpedo-BelAZ for Maxim Petrov 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.
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.
The fee is $130.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Orenburg drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
15 goals in 21 games at Navbahor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Baltika updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Baltika asked and Shinnik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Neman waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Baltika is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Baltika can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Slavia Mozyr for Ilja Agapov 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Baltika have done the hard part with Orenburg, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Baltika asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Baltika people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Baltika have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The chase for Alexandr Bem ended with $1.1M changing hands and Tyumen out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Baltika have done the hard part with KAMAZ, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Maxim Petrov 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.
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 Nathan Gassama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Baltika asked and Torpedo 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Baltika have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Yegor Lyubakov 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.
Maxim Petrov 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Akron waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Baltika is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Vitebsk for Alexandr Filin 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marquinhos wants continental football; whether Baltika can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The name of Nikolay Titkov has come up in conversations Baltika were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Fahd Moufi 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 Nathan Gassama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Baltika asked and Slavia Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Baltika are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
Squad6 new faces, and Baltika are still learning each other
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Maxim Petrov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The chase for Gamid Agalarov ended with $1.2M changing hands and Dinamo Makhachkala out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nathan Gassama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Baltika is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The offer from Torpedo-BelAZ for Maxim Petrov 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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Baltika, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilja Kirsh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Baltika will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Baltika, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.