“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 The request is on a desk at Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Ignatjev 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.” Platon Tsvetkov after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Platon Tsvetkov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Chelyabinsk is running low.
“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 The request is on a desk at Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Garrik Levin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.22, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yefim Stanislavchuk is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 7.42, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yefim Stanislavchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Ignatjev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Dmitry Yudin
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.
It needed Denis Pushkarev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Nizhniy Novgorod, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Platon Tsvetkov after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladimir Uljanovskiy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Jake Dennis's mistake
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexey Bondarenko and Chelyabinsk agree another 4 years.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Chelyabinsk is running low.
Garrik Levin 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Chelyabinsk and Fakel in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Chelyabinsk.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
David Kobesov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
7.85, 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.
Garrik Levin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Ignatjev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Arsenal Tula left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
200% of the income goes out in wages at Chelyabinsk
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Position 16, 15 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Ruslan Baitukov 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 Artem Ignatjev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Garrik Levin. 1‑0 against Sokol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Platon Tsvetkov could afford to be generous.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Ignatjev 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Chelyabinsk told Bulat Gatin something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Chelyabinsk has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chelyabinsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Position 16 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Ignatjev 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.
7 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.94 for the rest of it.
Garrik Levin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yefim Stanislavchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Chelyabinsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Chelyabinsk found something the first half had given no notice of, and Ufa could not hold what they had.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.92, and 2 involvements.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yefim Stanislavchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Denis Pushkarev 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.
0‑3 to Sochi, 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.
The terraces18 Oct 2027
The stands have turned
“Enough is enough. We have watched this for months.” 8 of the 30 senior players walked off to it, and the message was not aimed at any one of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk 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.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Garrik Levin 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 Yefim Stanislavchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Chelyabinsk were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Chelyabinsk will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Position 16 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Chelyabinsk and Dinamo Moscow 2 in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Chelyabinsk will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
David Semenchuk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Platon Tsvetkov to a room that had heard them before.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 25 gone
That is the business done at Chelyabinsk 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Fakel keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Garrik Levin 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 chase for Yaroslav Dol ended with $61.0K changing hands and Nart out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rubin have kept their man, and Chelyabinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Fakel 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.
Chelyabinsk offered $480.0K; Orenburg 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.
Garrik Levin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Chelyabinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
136% of the income goes out in wages at Chelyabinsk
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baba N'Diaye 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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Chelyabinsk had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Nart, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$400.0K on the table at Nizhniy Novgorod. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$390.0K was the most the club would pay and Nizhniy Novgorod 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.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything was agreed with Nart and then the doctor spoke. Chelyabinsk have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Volga keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The deal with Rotor is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Chelyabinsk asked and Orenburg 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
$390.0K on the table at Nizhniy Novgorod. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
CS Constantine pay $960.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Alexey Berdnikov 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.
$310.0K 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Denis Pushkarev 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baba N'Diaye is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Baba N'Diaye
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
7.80, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The offer 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.
Garrik Levin 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Yenisey were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baba N'Diaye 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.
9 combined actions and 7.42. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
In brief
Boardroom109% of the income goes out in wages at Chelyabinsk
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Chelyabinsk offered $390.0K; Nizhniy Novgorod 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Chelyabinsk can tell you which week it ends in.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chelyabinsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Chelyabinsk had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Volga, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The deal with Baltika 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.
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.
Chelyabinsk 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.
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chelyabinsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
0‑3 to Fakel, 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 Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Chelyabinsk and Nart have settled on $69.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Arsenal Tula keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Garrik Levin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
The offer went to Orenburg 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.
Garrik Levin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akron have kept their man, and Chelyabinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denis Pushkarev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
28 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
109% of the income goes out in wages at Chelyabinsk
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Chelyabinsk, another week without a signature from Denis Pushkarev.
In brief
Squad7 new faces, and Chelyabinsk are still learning each other
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
$390.0K on the table at Nizhniy Novgorod. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Chelyabinsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Chelyabinsk asked and Baltika said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Chelyabinsk have done the hard part with Rostov, 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. Arsenal Tula have kept their man, and Chelyabinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nizhniy Novgorod wanted more than $390.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Chelyabinsk is running low.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sevastopol had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Yenisey keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer went to Nizhniy Novgorod 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.
Garrik Levin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rostov have kept their man, and Chelyabinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Garrik Levin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Chelyabinsk is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Chelyabinsk will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Chelyabinsk, another week without a signature from Baba N'Diaye.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chelyabinsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“He needs to be playing at a level that matches him, and we are open to conversations.” Nobody says that by accident, and nobody at Chelyabinsk misheard it.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mark Pereverzev has agreed terms with Ufa for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk 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 Denis Tikhonov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Chelyabinsk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sibir runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chelyabinsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Garrik Levin 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vilmos Jován 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 Chelyabinsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chelyabinsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Bogdan Rogochiy has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on David Kobesov
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Garrik Levin 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 May 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Tikhonov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
In brief
SquadAlexey Berdnikov is training like a man with a point to make
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Tikhonov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexey Berdnikov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Chelyabinsk will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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 Bogdan Rogochiy has written the date down.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Diego Madritsch and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Chelyabinsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad3 May 2027
Vilmos Jován falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Danila Kozlov was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Diego Madritsch trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Chelyabinsk is running low.
Garrik Levin 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chelyabinsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Chelyabinsk the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Vilmos Jován on the training pitch
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Alexey Berdnikov 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.
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 Konstantin Kertanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chelyabinsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Bogdan Rogochiy has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Vilmos Jován 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexey Berdnikov signs something — a contract at Chelyabinsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Platon Tsvetkov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Up for the corner, and Garrik Levin delivers — 7.98
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Garrik Levin scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Garrik Levin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Tikhonov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Garrik Levin 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Tikhonov 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.
Shinnik next, and one man in the Chelyabinsk dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of 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 Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Alexey Berdnikov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Lystsov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Chelyabinsk will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and SKA Khabarovsk spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Denis Firsov 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Platon Tsvetkov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Akron will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Arseny Dmitriev has pre-agreed a move to Chelyabinsk, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Tikhonov 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 upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Chelyabinsk is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Chaika is saying, and nobody at Chelyabinsk is enjoying the guessing.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Chelyabinsk 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Chelyabinsk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Denis Samoilov reports back to Chelyabinsk with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
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.
Garrik Levin 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 Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about David Kobesov
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Denis Samoilov
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Chelyabinsk people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk 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.
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 Diego Madritsch.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Chelyabinsk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deal with Rostov 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Chelyabinsk and Volga have settled on $450.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Garrik Levin 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khetag Kochiev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matvey Urvantsev provided it, and the 9.15 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Chelyabinsk and Sokol, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Lukas Haubenwaller 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.
Denis Samoilov 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chelyabinsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Konstantin Kertanov 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 Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Garrik Levin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Chelyabinsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Tikhonov 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 words a physio says slowly. 22 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Garrik Levin 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk 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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk 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 Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Chelyabinsk can tell you which week it ends in.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk 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.
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.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk 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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Chelyabinsk who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Denis Samoilov 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 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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 everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Up for the corner, and Bulat Gatin delivers — 7.28
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Bulat Gatin scored, was marked 7.28, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Garrik Levin. 3‑1 against Shinnik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Chelyabinsk has been clear about where Konstantin Kertanov stands, which is more than many ever get.
60 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chelyabinsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
0-5, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
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.
Marked 7.82 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Tikhonov 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.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chelyabinsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutDenis Samoilov has become a man the manager trusts
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chelyabinsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Garrik Levin 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khetag Kochiev 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk 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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Garrik Levin 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 Denis Tikhonov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk 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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lukas Haubenwaller provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ufa held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Chelyabinsk answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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 2‑3 Platon Tsvetkov left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutBaba N'Diaye knocks on the manager's door
The words a physio says slowly. 95 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Lukas Haubenwaller 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.
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad12 Oct 2026
21 new faces, and Chelyabinsk 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chelyabinsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Denis Samoilov is on it.
110 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chelyabinsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Denis Pokotylo, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.01
A mark of 8.01 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
319% of the income goes out in wages at Chelyabinsk
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Vilmos Jován 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 words a physio says slowly. 117 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Vilmos Jován has, at Chelyabinsk, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Chelyabinsk and Fakel, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khetag Kochiev 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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7.41, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Chelyabinsk and Arsenal Tula, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Volna will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Mikhail Zabotkin has pre-agreed a move to Chelyabinsk, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denis Tikhonov 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. Textilschik have kept their man, and Chelyabinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
132 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 26 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Garrik Levin 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khetag Kochiev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
139 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chelyabinsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Everything agreed with CSKA Moscow, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Alexey Berdnikov 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 Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Chelyabinsk asked and Salyut said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Chelyabinsk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Chelyabinsk, another week without a signature from Rivio Ayemwenre.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexey Berdnikov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jakub Grzegorzewski is living that version at Chelyabinsk, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Chelyabinsk asked and Dinamo Vologda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Chelyabinsk are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 Chelyabinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Platon Tsvetkov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Chelyabinsk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
0‑3 to KAMAZ, 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Chelyabinsk dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Platon Tsvetkov after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk 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. Khimik have kept their man, and Chelyabinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Garrik Levin 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Denis Antonov 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. Igor Kiselyov 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Semyon Klimov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vladislav Kudryavtsev 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Garrik Levin. 1‑0 against Yenisey, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Khetag Kochiev and Chelyabinsk agree another 4 years.
Garrik Levin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akron have kept their man, and Chelyabinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Still no offer on the table, and Khetag Kochiev’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
In brief
The dugoutMatvey Urvantsev is still being punished for one mistake