Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CSKA Moscow will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
$32.3M on the table at Lokomotiv 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.
CSKA Moscow asked and Lokomotiv Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
CSKA Moscow offered $9.5M; Zenit 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $801.0K — a club that wants Ilja Lantratov enough to be asked twice.
Majed Al Suwaidi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSKA Moscow will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lokomotiva Zagreb waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CSKA Moscow is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Sparta Prague for Alexey Miranchuk 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.
Nikita Krivtsov 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 training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 9 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Nobody at CSKA Moscow 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nikita Krivtsov provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. CSKA Moscow will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.32, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Ivan Oblyakov 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 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.
“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 CSKA Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Nikita Krivtsov 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 CSKA Moscow have no good answer.
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 Sergey Pinyaev 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 CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at CSKA Moscow 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 CSKA Moscow, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at CSKA Moscow would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at CSKA Moscow that is a harder question to answer.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Moisés has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and CSKA Moscow know 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Majed Al Suwaidi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
3 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at CSKA Moscow no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at CSKA Moscow would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Position 2, 68 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking 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 CSKA Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
A season average of 7.32 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. CSKA Moscow know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CSKA Moscow can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ivan Oblyakov 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CSKA Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nikita Krivtsov 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 CSKA Moscow 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. CSKA Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sergey Pinyaev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and CSKA Moscow supporters have already started telling it.
“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 CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow 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 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.
Ivan Oblyakov 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 CSKA Moscow 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 CSKA Moscow, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 CSKA Moscow would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Ivan Oblyakov has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at CSKA Moscow heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
14 goals in 29 games at Arsenal Tula — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody at CSKA Moscow will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at CSKA Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at CSKA Moscow has been clear about where Dmitry Barinov stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 Amir Murillo is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The phone has started ringing about Tomáš Chorý again, and this time the name on the line is Rosenborg. CSKA Moscow are listening politely and promising nothing.
$2.5M was the most the club would pay and Zenit 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.
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.
Tomáš Chorý 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.
17 games, 14 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at CSKA Moscow now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Ivan Oblyakov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; CSKA Moscow are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Artem Shumanskiy and CSKA Moscow agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 Ivan Oblyakov 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 CSKA Moscow, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 CSKA Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.32, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at CSKA Moscow heard it as anything else.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Danil Krugovoy and CSKA Moscow agree another 4 years.
Dinamo Moscow will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Rubén Blanco has pre-agreed a move to CSKA Moscow, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“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 CSKA Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.38, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The terraces28 Feb 2028
CSKA Moscow are 2 in the table and the town has noticed
68 points, a place near the top and a ground that has begun to enjoy itself. Nobody will say the word out loud, which is the surest indication that everybody is thinking it.
The offer went to Zenit 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.
7.90, 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Neman waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CSKA Moscow is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Henrique Carmo did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The chase for Vitaly Stezhko ended with $470.0K changing hands and Krasnodar out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vitaly Stezhko has just signed for CSKA Moscow, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around CSKA Moscow people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have shaken hands with Krasnodar; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Lokomotiv Moscow wanted more than $3.5M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
CSKA Moscow have gone to Zenit 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
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 7.97 for the rest of it.
The phone has started ringing about Dmitry Barinov again, and this time the name on the line is BATE. CSKA Moscow are listening politely and promising nothing.
CSKA Moscow offered $66.8M; LOSC Lille 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. CSKA Moscow have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Position 2, 66 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking 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 CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
22 goals in 26 games at Sochi — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A season average of 7.32 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. CSKA Moscow know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
$62.6M on the table at LOSC Lille. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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.
“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 CSKA Moscow, 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 CSKA Moscow people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexey Miranchuk provided it, and the 9.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akhmat Grozny have kept their man, and CSKA Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
Player ratingsHenrique Carmo, 21, steals the show — 8.04
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Henrique Carmo did not need any: 8.08, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
4 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.
19 goals in 24 games at Sochi — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The name of Dmitry Barinov has come up in conversations CSKA Moscow were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Fernando Costanza wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Nikita Krivtsov at his very best
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Alexey Miranchuk 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. Alexey Miranchuk provided it, and the 9.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
A 7‑1 win over Spartak Kostroma, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
“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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around CSKA Moscow people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sergey Pinyaev provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Marked 8.23 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The terraces10 Jan 2028
CSKA Moscow are 2 in the table and the town has noticed
54 points, a place near the top and a ground that has begun to enjoy itself. Nobody will say the word out loud, which is the surest indication that everybody is thinking it.
1 for Rodrigo Villagra, marked 7.94, 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.
The offer from Navbahor for Dmitry Barinov 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and CSKA Moscow have had the benefit 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 phone has started ringing about Alexey Miranchuk again, and this time the name on the line is Dinamo Zagreb. CSKA Moscow are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
17 goals in 21 games at Sochi — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rodrigo Villagra and CSKA Moscow agree another 4 years.
“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 CSKA Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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 7.99 for the rest of it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at CSKA Moscow can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
15 goals in 20 games at Sochi — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Zenit next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Dinamo Makhachkala will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. CSKA Moscow were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexey Miranchuk provided it, and the 9.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Henrique Carmo did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting João Victor's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Henrique Carmo did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A season average of 7.22 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. CSKA Moscow know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Majed Al Suwaidi 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about CSKA Moscow and Rodina in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nikita Krivtsov scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“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.
Ivan Oblyakov 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.
14 goals in 17 games at Sochi — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Marked 8.42 — 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.
13 goals in 16 games at Sochi — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
13 goals in 15 games at HNK Rijeka — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tamerlan Musaev provided it, and the 9.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Nikita Krivtsov 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 a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether CSKA Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Alexey Miranchuk at his very best
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether CSKA Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.19, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Nikita Krivtsov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Henrique Carmo and CSKA Moscow agree another 5 years.
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 Nikita Krivtsov is on 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 CSKA Moscow would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Jindřich Staněk now has 25 of them across 251 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Tomáš Chorý’s exile
“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; CSKA Moscow are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ivan Oblyakov 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 fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes CSKA Moscow will be judged on one thing only.
Something was said to Ivan Oblyakov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Alexandr Sobolev has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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 Facundo Pellistri is on it.
“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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tamerlan Musaev provided it, and the 8.78 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Henrique Carmo, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.87
A mark of 7.87 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 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.
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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Ivan Oblyakov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
Position 2, 29 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
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.
“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 CSKA Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at CSKA Moscow heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sergey Pinyaev wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Artem Shumanskiy and CSKA Moscow agree another 4 years.
Spartak Moscow next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Nobody at CSKA Moscow 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
The division's best last weekend was a CSKA Moscow man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Alexey Miranchuk was the best thing in any of them.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
SquadA CSKA Moscow teenager takes the young player award
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexey Miranchuk provided it, and the 9.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nikita Krivtsov provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Henrique Carmo did not need any: 8.35, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at CSKA Moscow heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 7.17 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether CSKA Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Rubin made CSKA Moscow work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Barinov 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.
Marked 7.73. 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 dugout27 Sep 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.” Timur Tsyganov kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
22 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexey Miranchuk provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Krasnodar; CSKA Moscow go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nikita Krivtsov scored, was marked 7.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around CSKA Moscow people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nikita Krivtsov provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer went to Zenit 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.
CSKA Moscow and Krasnodar have settled on $710.0K. 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.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 26 gone
That is the business done at CSKA Moscow until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nikita Krivtsov wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $7.6M — a club that wants Artem Karpukas enough to be asked twice.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. CSKA Moscow will try again when the window opens; Zenit may not be selling by then.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around CSKA Moscow people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The chase for Fernando Costanza ended with $5.9M changing hands and Krylya Sovetov out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The offer went to Zenit 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Fernando Costanza has, at CSKA Moscow, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at CSKA Moscow heard it as anything else.
Amir Murillo 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Matheus Reis 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 young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at CSKA Moscow who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Sharjah did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $18.1M for Majed Al Suwaidi, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. CSKA Moscow have done the hard part with Krylya Sovetov, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around CSKA Moscow people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Novi Pazar had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Majed Al Suwaidi has, at CSKA Moscow, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akhmat Grozny have kept their man, and CSKA Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
CSKA Moscow have gone to Sharjah 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.
“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 CSKA Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Boca Juniors 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.
CSKA Moscow asked and Sparta 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.
The offer from Napredak for Milan Gajić was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at CSKA Moscow heard it as anything else.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. CSKA Moscow know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Add another name to the list: Krasnodar have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ramiro Di Luciano. The answer from CSKA Moscow has not changed — yet.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Spezia have accepted the money. What CSKA Moscow do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
CSKA Moscow asked and Feyenoord 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 listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Artem Shumanskiy had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Milan Gajić has come up in conversations CSKA Moscow were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
SquadMatheus Reis falls out with a teammate over standards
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSKA Moscow 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Torpedo-BelAZ waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CSKA Moscow is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
1 for Grischa Prömel, marked 7.79, 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. João Victor wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSKA Moscow lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
19 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.
Orenburg will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. CSKA Moscow were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The offer from IMT for Milan Gajić 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.
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 CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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 CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
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.
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CSKA Moscow lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
18 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The offer from Hajduk Split for Tomáš Chorý was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sochi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CSKA Moscow is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Slavia Mozyr 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 CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Henrique Carmo, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 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.
Grischa Prömel 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.
In brief
Boardroom5 academy graduates step up at CSKA Moscow
Player ratingsThe game went through Dmitry Barinov — 6.94
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSKA Moscow lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
62 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Neman had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
CSKA Moscow offered $5.1M; Zenit 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 offer from Krylya Sovetov for Alerrandro 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.
Grischa Prömel 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danil Krugovoy 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. 43 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 CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Torpedo-BelAZ for Artem Shumanskiy 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.
CSKA Moscow asked and Zenit said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $5.6M — a club that wants Nüraly Älip enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Dmitry Barinov
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. CSKA Moscow have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The fee is $8.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lokomotiv Moscow drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sergey Pinyaev is living that version at CSKA Moscow, and it tends to show in the first month.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jamalutdin Abdulkadyrov is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at CSKA Moscow heard it as anything else.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Matheus Reis 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Sergey Pinyaev from Lokomotiv Moscow for $8.2M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Moisés had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have shaken hands with Lokomotiv Moscow; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
Matheus Reis 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 enquiry everybody at CSKA Moscow was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milan Gajić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at CSKA Moscow has been clear about where Matheus Reis stands, which is more than many ever get.
RB Leipzig arrived with $36.2M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kaizer Chiefs waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CSKA Moscow is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Novi Pazar for Milan Gajić 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.
Matvey Kislyak has gone, the accounts have $36.2M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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 CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Facundo Pellistri and CSKA Moscow agree another 4 years.
Grischa Prömel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Matheus Reis 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.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. CSKA Moscow will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“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 CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Matheus Reis 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.
5 clean sheets in 16 appearances on loan. Whoever starts the first game of the season will have had to earn it, which is not something anybody at CSKA Moscow could say last August.
Squad7 Jun 2027
9 new faces, and CSKA Moscow 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 spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Innokentiy Smirnov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Timur Zhdanov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kirill Kobzev 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. Gennady Zimnin 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.
Nobody at CSKA Moscow 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.
8 goals in 33 games at Genclerbirligi — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. CSKA Moscow know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
5 goals in 25 games at Chelyabinsk — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
5 shut-outs in 16 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Maxim Borisko has been having a lot of them.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at CSKA Moscow. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
“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 CSKA Moscow, and 2 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at CSKA Moscow 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. CSKA Moscow 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 Dmitry Barinov has written the date down.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at CSKA Moscow would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Alexandr Sobolev has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether CSKA Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Fedor Smolov 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fedor Smolov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Luciano Gondou has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
João Victor 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Alerrandro has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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 Alexey Miranchuk is on it.
8 goals in 33 games at Genclerbirligi — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luciano Gondou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Chelyabinsk suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to CSKA Moscow, and the summer will force 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.
Grischa Prömel 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 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 Matvey Kislyak is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
5 shut-outs in 16 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Maxim Borisko has been having a lot of them.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at CSKA Moscow. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Grischa Prömel 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at CSKA Moscow, and 2 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Grischa Prömel is on it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at CSKA Moscow has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Ruiz trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at CSKA Moscow the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. João Victor wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Nobody at CSKA Moscow 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.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Luciano Gondou plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Luciano Gondou 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.
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 Alexey Miranchuk is on it.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
8 goals in 30 games at Genclerbirligi — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexey Miranchuk signs something — a contract at CSKA Moscow or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
20 appearances at PSK Pervorechenskoe and the goals have stopped going in. CSKA Moscow lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Nobody at CSKA Moscow 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fedor Smolov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
5 shut-outs in 16 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Maxim Borisko has been having a lot of them.
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 Dmitry Barinov has written the date down.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at CSKA Moscow heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Something was said to Ivan Oblyakov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I watch every CSKA Moscow game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Akhmat Grozny runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at CSKA Moscow heard it as anything else.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nikita Krivtsov wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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; CSKA Moscow are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
João Victor 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.
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 Tomáš Chorý is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luciano Gondou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at CSKA Moscow heard it as anything else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexey Miranchuk and CSKA Moscow agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than 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 CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and CSKA Moscow know 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 28 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
617 appearances across 24 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
CSKA Moscow have gone to Lokomotiv Moscow with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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 CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Alexey Bondarenko has agreed terms with Chelyabinsk for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
62 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“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 CSKA Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. CSKA Moscow have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Grischa Prömel provided it, and the 8.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Rostov for Luciano Gondou 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 fee is $5.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Krasnodar drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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 CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
CSKA Moscow offered $13.2M; Cruzeiro 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 offer went to Lokomotiv Moscow 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.
Luciano Gondou and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A 2‑0 win over Lokomotiv Moscow, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Alexey Miranchuk at his very best
The offer went to Cruzeiro 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.
The chase for Alexandr Sobolev ended with $7.9M changing hands and Zenit out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Kirill Glebov was one of the reasons people came, and $11.6M does not replace that by itself.
CSKA Moscow asked and Spartak Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Alexandr Sobolev from Zenit for $7.9M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
The clubs have shaken hands with Zenit; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. CSKA Moscow have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Lokomotiv Moscow for Alerrandro 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Kirill Glebov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.3M — a club that wants Kevin Pina enough to be asked twice.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
52 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kirill Glebov did not need any: 8.14, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Ivan Oblyakov, marked 7.96, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Matvey Lukin had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
A season average of 7.04 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. CSKA Moscow know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
A conversation is coming this week. CSKA Moscow will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Reis 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 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.
3 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.
Orenburg go through and CSKA Moscow go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tomáš Chorý. 3‑1 against Zenit, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The offer from FC Midtjylland for Matvey Kislyak 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. CSKA Moscow will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Grischa Prömel 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.
Position 2, 42 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matvey Kislyak did not need any: 8.18, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
12 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Grischa Prömel wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Matvey Kislyak 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 Matheus Reis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Looking aheadThe big one: Krasnodar come into view
“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 CSKA Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Henrique Carmo did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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 7.64 for the rest of it.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“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 CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. CSKA Moscow know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Matheus Alves was one of the reasons people came, and $13.3M does not replace that by itself.
The offer from Godoy Cruz for Ramiro Di Luciano was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I 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 CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matheus Reis wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Fedor Smolov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 21 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Botafogo for Matheus Alves was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I 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 CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether CSKA Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Reis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether CSKA Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Grischa Prömel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tomáš Chorý. 1‑0 against Sochi, 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.
Position 3, 34 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.
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 7.99 for the rest 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 CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about CSKA Moscow and Nizhniy Novgorod in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about CSKA Moscow and Mashuk in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
SquadAt 21, Kirill Glebov is already the best thing here
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow 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 Matheus Reis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nobody at CSKA Moscow will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a CSKA Moscow man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Tomáš Chorý was the best thing in any of them.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSKA Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and CSKA Moscow supporters have already started telling it.
Moisés 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.
At 21 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.
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.
Something was said to Alexey Miranchuk and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
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 Alexey Miranchuk is on it.
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Kirill Glebov, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84
A mark of 7.84 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.
6 matches without defeat, and then Krylya Sovetov. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Matheus Reis 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 fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes CSKA Moscow will be judged on one thing only.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Luciano Gondou is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CSKA Moscow told Tomáš Chorý something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
6 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Moisés scored, was marked 7.74, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Grischa Prömel wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Facundo Pellistri 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 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 CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Marked 8.82 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Reis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Derby days make names, and Tomáš Chorý made his against Spartak Moscow. 3‑1, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Matheus Alves was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
3 goals inside twenty minutes with Tomáš Chorý in the middle of it, and Spartak Moscow unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danil Krugovoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Grischa Prömel 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 the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. João Victor wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Matheus Reis 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.
Spartak Moscow next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
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 Luciano Gondou is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luciano Gondou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Tamerlan Musaev obliged against Avangard. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is CSKA Moscow.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Henrique Carmo did not need any: 8.04, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
4 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Grischa Prömel scored, was marked 7.83, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Alexey Miranchuk 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 the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matheus Reis wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
At 21 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Grischa Prömel scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
He is 20 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.
CSKA Moscow ran out of time with Dinamo Moscow. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never 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 CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexey Miranchuk. 2‑0 against Baltika, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.49. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at CSKA Moscow.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Reis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I watch every CSKA Moscow game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at PSK Pervorechenskoe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Igor Akinfeev
“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 CSKA Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CSKA Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chaika waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CSKA Moscow is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Dinamo Moscow 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
CSKA Moscow close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 5 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.
“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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Matvey Lukin reports back to CSKA Moscow with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.3M — a club that wants Yaroslav Gladyshev enough to be asked twice.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chelyabinsk waiting with a shirt. Nobody at CSKA Moscow 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 CSKA Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Zenit have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Matvey Lukin. The answer from CSKA Moscow has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danil Krugovoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Tamerlan Musaev is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Matvey Kislyak is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Zenit next, and one man in the CSKA Moscow dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Fedor Smolov a promise
The dugoutDanila Kozlov knocks on the manager’s door
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Minsk had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Anderlecht paid $4.5M and CSKA Moscow took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akhmat Grozny have kept their man, and CSKA Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Matheus Alves and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Reis 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.
Minute 85, against Krasnodar, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
In brief
Squad8 new faces, and CSKA Moscow are still learning each other
The fee is $6.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Panathinaikos drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Facundo Pellistri was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $6.3M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Reis 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.
Panathinaikos have accepted the money. What CSKA Moscow do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $11.6M has been paid because Amir Murillo is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. CSKA Moscow have paid $3.8M for Tomáš Chorý, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $3.4M has been paid because Jindřich Staněk is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
CSKA Moscow and Slavia Prague have settled on $3.8M. 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 offer went to Besiktas 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.
Atlanta United FC did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $8.4M for Alexey Miranchuk, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Galatasaray have kept their man, and CSKA Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matheus Alves wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matvey Kislyak and CSKA Moscow agree another 5 years.
$6.2M on the table at Atlanta United FC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
$2.8M on the table at Slavia Prague. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Luciano Gondou wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Matvey Kislyak 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.
At 20 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.