0‑4 to CSKA Moscow, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Makhachkala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksandr Danilov after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Houssem Mrezigue scored, was marked 7.72, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Houssem Mrezigue 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 Kirill Zinovich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Dinamo Makhachkala 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Mohammad Javad Hosseinnejad and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksandr Danilov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Dinamo Makhachkala 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Gamid Agalarov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Dinamo Makhachkala needing him to play as if none of it matters.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Dinamo Moscow the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Dinamo Makhachkala will enjoy reviewing.
7.84, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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 7.80 for the rest of it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dinamo Makhachkala are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Makhachkala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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.
Houssem Mrezigue was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mehdi Moubarik 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.
Houssem Mrezigue 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 had been thinking. Juan Pablo Presentado 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 Dinamo Makhachkala will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mutalip Alibekov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Rubin in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A side in position 6 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Makhachkala can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Zinovich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Dinamo Makhachkala will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Makhachkala 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 Mehdi Moubarik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dinamo Makhachkala told Mohammad Javad Hosseinnejad something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Mohammad Javad Hosseinnejad was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Hazem Mastouri has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Orenburg? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Makhachkala know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Makhachkala, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Two goals and a mark of 9.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Vitaly Shitov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Dinamo Makhachkala has been clear about where Timur Magomedov stands, which is more than many ever get.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Makhachkala can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Juan Pablo Presentado and Dinamo Makhachkala agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Out, 0‑0 to Dinamo Stavropol, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Makhachkala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Hazem Mastouri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.50. 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Makhachkala have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Makhachkala is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Dinamo Makhachkala know it.
Houssem Mrezigue 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.
Minute 88, against Krylya Sovetov, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Houssem Mrezigue scored, was marked 7.36, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Daniil Lesovoy 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“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 Dinamo Makhachkala, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Crvena Zvezda keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Makhachkala have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The fee is $200.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Tyumen drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Makhachkala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Temirkan Sundukov and Dinamo Makhachkala agree another 3 years.
Dinamo Makhachkala asked and Dinamo Vologda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Idar Shumakhov has his answer from Dinamo Makhachkala; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Amourricho van Axel Dongen has come out of that comparison in the side, and Dinamo Makhachkala have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Makhachkala can pretend not to have heard.
Dinamo Makhachkala asked and Tyumen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Soslan Kagermazov 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Aleksandr Danilov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Dinamo Makhachkala have made the call to Trabzonspor. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Houssem Mrezigue and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chaika have kept their man, and Dinamo Makhachkala go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
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.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Makhachkala have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Moscow have kept their man, and Dinamo Makhachkala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Dinamo Makhachkala had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cortulua, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The goal that put Akhmat ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Dinamo Makhachkala equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hazem Mastouri provided it, and the 9.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Krylya Sovetov for Idar Shumakhov 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Aguilas Doradas is saying, and nobody at Dinamo Makhachkala is enjoying the guessing.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Houssem Mrezigue was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Baltika have kept their man, and Dinamo Makhachkala go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Houssem Mrezigue and Dinamo Makhachkala agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Makhachkala can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Makhachkala this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Nikita Karabashev has come up in conversations Dinamo Makhachkala were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.