Kirill Glebov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moisés 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 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.
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.
“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.
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.
16 goals in 28 games at Ural — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daler Kuzyaev 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.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutIvan Oblyakov asks for a word with the manager
“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.
“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.
Kirill Glebov 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moisés is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at 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.
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 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.
“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.
Kirill Glebov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every CSKA Moscow game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Vissel Kobe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Something was said to Matvey Kislyak and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutIgor Diveev knocks on the manager's door
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 112th minute. Rostov will replay every second of the added time for a week.
CSKA Moscow asked and Akhmat Grozny said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 5 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.
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.
“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 went to Baltika 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
CSKA Moscow offered $750.0K; Lokomotiv Moscow 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.
Daler Kuzyaev 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.
CSKA Moscow asked and Rodina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at CSKA Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
$4.3M was the most the club would pay and Krasnodar were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Yegor Besaev has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Pedro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moisés is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Position 3 on 62 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
CSKA Moscow offered $9.1M; 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.
Position 3, 62 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 fee is $6.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Torpedo Moscow drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alesson has just signed for CSKA Moscow, and for once the answer mattered.
Kirill Glebov 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 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luciano Gondou provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
CSKA Moscow have gone to Torpedo 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.
$4.3M on the table at Krasnodar. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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.
“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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Artem Bandikyan has agreed terms with Rubin for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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 Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ramiro Di Luciano and CSKA Moscow agree another 5 years.
1‑0 against Spartak Moscow, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for 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.
“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.
A season average of 7.24 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.
Kirill Glebov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 42. 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.
18 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.
Position 2, 55 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The offer from Slovan Bratislava 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 were 86 minutes on the clock and Rubin had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and CSKA Moscow did not stop to explain themselves.
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.
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 and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pedro did not need any: 7.95, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Pedro 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daler Kuzyaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Rostov scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The offer from Atlético Mineiro 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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Pedro, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.10
A mark of 8.10 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.
“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.
“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.
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.
Daler Kuzyaev 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
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Luciano Gondou
SquadWords at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moisés 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.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now CSKA Moscow have 6 straight wins of it.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Pedro, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.26
A mark of 8.26 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.
“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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Maxim Voronov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Moisés 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daler Kuzyaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 44. 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Daler Kuzyaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moisés is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at CSKA Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
14 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.
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.
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.
“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.
Moisés and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daler Kuzyaev 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 8.27 — 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.
Marked 8.07 — 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Matheus Alves had CSKA Moscow level again within 4 minutes, and Akron never got to play with a lead at all.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.32 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ramiro Di Luciano scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Pedro 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moisés is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.12 — 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.
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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Pedro 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 Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Nizhniy Novgorod scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“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.
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 season average of 7.02 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matvey Kislyak is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Position 3, 28 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CSKA Moscow told Ivan Oblyakov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 19 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped 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.
Position 2, 27 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.
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 7.15, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moisés 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.
Mashuk are out and CSKA Moscow go through, 3‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
A brace, and Maxim Voronov takes the afternoon — 8.92
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Maxim Voronov provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kirill Glebov did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at CSKA Moscow who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luciano Gondou provided it, and the 8.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.23, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Kirill Glebov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.19
A mark of 8.19 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.
“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.
Daler Kuzyaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
CSKA Moscow have gone to Krasnodar with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“It was not 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.
First, on 21 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Up for the corner, and Ivan Oblyakov delivers — 7.87
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ivan Oblyakov scored, was marked 7.87, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
CSKA Moscow close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 9 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“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.
Kirill Glebov 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lokomotiv Moscow had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
$6.3M was the most the club would pay and Lokomotiv Moscow 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.
“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 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.
Kirill Glebov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
CSKA Moscow offered $2.5M; 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.
CSKA Moscow asked and Rodina 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 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kirill Glebov did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The fee is $1.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Rostov drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether CSKA Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
A brace, and Matheus Alves takes the afternoon — 9.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matheus Alves provided it, and the 9.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kirill Glebov did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The chase for Sebastián Arce ended with $2.3M changing hands and Rodina out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
CSKA Moscow have gone to Rostov 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 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.
“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 shirt still fits. Maxim Mukhin is back at CSKA Moscow, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kirill Glebov did not need any: 8.41, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer from Arsenal Tula 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.
The offer went to Rodina 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Luciano Gondou had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have shaken hands with Rostov; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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.
“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.
The fee is $4.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Rodina drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
CSKA Moscow asked and Rubin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Leo Goglichidze is living that version at CSKA Moscow, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Milan Gajić had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Kirill Glebov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.23
A mark of 8.23 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.
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.
“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.
Daler Kuzyaev 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 Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The fee is $4.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Baltika drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pedro did not need any: 8.14, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The chase for Ilja Vakhania ended with $2.7M changing hands and Krasnodar out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. CSKA Moscow have done the hard part with Arsenal Tula, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The offer went to Baltika 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 Rostov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$2.7M on the table at Krasnodar. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Daler Kuzyaev 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 name of Maxim Voronov has come up in conversations CSKA Moscow were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSKA Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
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.
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.
“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.
Daler Kuzyaev 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moisés is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The manager 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.
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 Everton 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.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Moscow have kept their man, and CSKA Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The fee is $4.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Baltika drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.13, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutLuciano Gondou has become a man the manager trusts
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Alerrandro had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Nizhniy Novgorod 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.
$4.9M on the table at Baltika. 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 Baltika said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The chase for Anton Mitryushkin ended with $980.0K changing hands and Lokomotiv Moscow out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Matvey Kislyak had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Position 2, 63 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 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tamerlan Musaev and CSKA Moscow agree another 3 years.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
“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. Maxim Voronov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
Add another name to the list: Chelsea have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Matvey Kislyak. The answer from CSKA Moscow has not changed — yet.
“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.
Daler Kuzyaev 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Igor Diveev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A 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.
A season average of 7.13 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.
Ivan Oblyakov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daler Kuzyaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Milan Gajić has his answer from CSKA Moscow; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
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 Igor Diveev has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Milan Gajić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matija Popović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CSKA Moscow the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Kirill Glebov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Moisés is on it.
4 goals in 13 games at Racing — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSKA Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each 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.
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.
Position 2, 63 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.
Daler Kuzyaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moisés is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at 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.
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.
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
In brief
BoardroomThe CSKA Moscow board put their names to it
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 Daler Kuzyaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Igor Diveev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
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.
Ivan Oblyakov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moisés is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
In brief
The dugoutIgor Diveev asks for a word with the manager
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CSKA Moscow they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moisés is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
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.
Moisés 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Daler Kuzyaev 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.
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.
“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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luciano Gondou signs something — a contract at CSKA Moscow or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.13, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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.
Something was said to Vladislav Torop and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Market5 Apr 2027
Yegor Besaev returns from a loan that taught him nothing
1 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
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, terms agreed, medical booked. Matija Popović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CSKA Moscow the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Daler Kuzyaev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every CSKA Moscow game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Racing runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
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.
Position 2, 63 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 offer from Nashville SC for Marius Adamonis 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CSKA Moscow told Matheus Alves something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Pedro is on 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.
Daler Kuzyaev 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 Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 1 appearances in 26 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 Tomáš Chorý is on it.
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.
Lokomotiv Moscow wanted more than $11.7M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
“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.
“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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daler Kuzyaev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rostov have kept their man, and CSKA Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rostov have kept their man, and CSKA Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CSKA Moscow they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A last season at home is what Tomáš Chorý is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
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.
“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.
Position 2, 63 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Moscow have kept their man, and CSKA Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
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 Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pedro is on it.
The offer from Bodo/Glimt 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 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 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.
CSKA Moscow asked and Baltika said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Kirill Glebov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Daler Kuzyaev 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation CSKA Moscow are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 0 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. CSKA Moscow have paid $15.4M for Pedro, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for CSKA Moscow and a story that will outlast his contract.
Add another name to the list: Bodo/Glimt have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luciano Gondou. The answer from CSKA Moscow has not changed — yet.
CSKA Moscow offered $2.5M; Rodina 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.
CSKA Moscow asked and Sochi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
637 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 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kirill Glebov did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. CSKA Moscow have done the hard part with Baltika, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
CSKA Moscow offered $3.1M; Akhmat Grozny 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Artem Bandikyan has agreed terms with Rostov for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Moisés 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daler Kuzyaev 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 easiest signature of my career.” Ramiro Di Luciano and CSKA Moscow agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The CSKA Moscow support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I 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 0 appearances in 5 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 Tomáš Chorý is on it.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Dmitry Ostrovsky on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Daler Kuzyaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every CSKA Moscow game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Chaika runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yuri Golovin 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. Matvey Berezhnoy has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Evgeny Solovyov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yuri Tokarev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
14 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 KV Kortrijk 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kirill Glebov did not need any: 8.31, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. CSKA Moscow will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
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.
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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.07, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The name of Tamerlan Musaev has come up in conversations CSKA Moscow were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
49 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Matheus Alves, 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.
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.
6 goals in one match, Tomáš Chorý on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of CSKA Moscow and Baltika.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Tomáš Chorý was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.90. 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tomáš Chorý. 4‑2 against Baltika, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Daler Kuzyaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moisés 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.
Something was said to Matheus Reis and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSKA Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Daler Kuzyaev 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.
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.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now CSKA Moscow have 5 straight wins of it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Matheus Alves, 21, 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 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
“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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 35. 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Akinfeev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Dinamo Kirov will replay every second of the added time for a week.
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.
11 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.
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.
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.
Daler Kuzyaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every CSKA Moscow game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Chaika runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
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.
A season average of 7.02 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Igor Akinfeev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 7.08, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Nizhniy Novgorod 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.
“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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tomáš Chorý wants continental football; whether CSKA Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match24 Oct 2026
Luciano Gondou wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Luciano Gondou found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Dinamo Moscow went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Daler Kuzyaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Igor Akinfeev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Dinamo Moscow on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CSKA Moscow told Luciano Gondou something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.29 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.81 for the rest of 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Daler Kuzyaev 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.
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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad12 Oct 2026
8 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.
Veles are out and CSKA Moscow go through, 3‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Tomáš Chorý wins it after the whistle should have gone
96 minutes played. Tomáš Chorý found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Spartak Moscow went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Position 3, 22 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.
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.
Moisés and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Igor Akinfeev 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.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Tomáš Chorý takes the afternoon — 8.74
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tomáš Chorý provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Matheus Alves, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.05
A mark of 8.05 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.
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Daler Kuzyaev 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Dmitry Ostrovsky on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Roberto Soriano
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akron have kept their man, and CSKA Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
7.33, 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. 18 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Igor Diveev is a CSKA Moscow player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The deal with Akron is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
“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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moisés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The terracesThe town asked, and CSKA Moscow paid $6.7M
CSKA Moscow asked and Rubin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Henrique Carmo has come up in conversations CSKA Moscow were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matvey Kislyak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Dmitry Ostrovsky chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Zenit.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Marius Adamonis had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Matvey Kislyak, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.91
A mark of 7.91 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.
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at CSKA Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matvey Kislyak 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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. CSKA Moscow have paid $4.6M for Tomáš Chorý, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
CSKA Moscow asked and Atlanta United FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Akinfeev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
In brief
Squad7 new faces, and CSKA Moscow are still learning each other
The deal with Slavia Prague is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
$4.1M was the most the club would pay and Baltika 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.
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.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Marius Adamonis is living that version at CSKA Moscow, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
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.
$3.1M 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.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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. 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.
In brief
SquadMoisés falls out with a teammate over standards