The name of Bitello has come up in conversations Dinamo Moscow were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kirill Krasnokhod is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Spartak Moscow on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Getting past Nikita Haikin has become the hardest job in the division
9 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
“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 Dinamo Moscow, and 5 appearances in 15 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 Nikita Haikin is on it.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Zenit; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Gladyshev 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 Dinamo Moscow, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Yefim Abdulov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
“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 Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Moscow heard it as anything else.
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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Dinamo Moscow will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Moscow can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Position 3, 33 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bitello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Moscow can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Half the programme played, position 3, 33 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Giuliano obliged against Chelyabinsk. 6‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Dinamo Moscow.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 36, 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 7.86 for the rest of it.
1 for David Ricardo, marked 7.98, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Dinamo Moscow and Chelyabinsk, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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 Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Dinamo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bitello 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 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.
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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Dinamo Moscow the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
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 Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Getting past Nikita Haikin has become the hardest job in the division
6 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. CSKA Moscow defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“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 Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Lokomotiv Moscow; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. CSKA Moscow on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Gladyshev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Yefim Abdulov left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bitello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Two goals and a mark of 8.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bitello provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bitello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 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.
A muscle injury sidelines Andrey Lunev for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Dinamo Moscow will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maxim Osipenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bitello signs something — a contract at Dinamo Moscow or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Baltika next, and one man in the Dinamo Moscow dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Dinamo Moscow would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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 Yaroslav Gladyshev has written the date down.
A 2‑0 win over PSK Pervorechenskoe, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
“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 Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Moscow heard it as anything else.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dinamo Moscow have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Dinamo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bitello 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.
Nicolás Marichal 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.
Dinamo Moscow ran out of time with Zenit. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Nikita Haikin 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
Words at Dinamo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bitello is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I 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 Moscow know it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Dinamo Moscow has been clear about where Andrey Lunev stands, which is more than many ever get.
Dinamo Moscow ran out of time with Rostov. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Daniil Fomin 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ilya Gubarevich is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Dinamo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Gladyshev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A mark of 7.92, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad21 Sep 2026
6 new faces, and Dinamo 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.
A brace, and Daniil Fomin takes the afternoon — 8.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniil Fomin provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
$10.2M was the most the club would pay and Zenit were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dinamo Moscow have done the hard part with Zenit, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Dinamo Moscow will try again when the window opens; Crvena Zvezda may not be selling by then.
Dinamo 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Dinamo 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bitello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Dinamo Moscow have paid $15.6M for Igoh Ogbu, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Everything agreed with Crvena Zvezda, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Juventus paid $19.5M and Dinamo Moscow took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Dinamo 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.
Konstantin Tyukavin has gone, the accounts have $19.5M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.7M — a club that wants Victor Melekhin enough to be asked twice.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dinamo Moscow have done the hard part with Slavia Prague, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The phone has started ringing about Ulvi Babaev again, and this time the name on the line is Minsk. Dinamo Moscow are listening politely and promising nothing.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ivan Sergeev. 2‑0 against Krylya Sovetov, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Lokomotiv Moscow; Dinamo Moscow go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Dinamo 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.
Add another name to the list: Neman have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about El Mehdi Maouhoub. The answer from Dinamo Moscow has not changed — yet.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Dinamo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bitello 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Andrey Lunev
Dinamo 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ulvi Babaev had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $11.3M — a club that wants Alexandr Siljanov enough to be asked twice.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bitello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nicolás Marichal and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 8.23 — 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.
In brief
Looking aheadThe neighbours are next for Dinamo Moscow
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Moscow have lost him in all but the paperwork.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
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.
“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 Dinamo Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Add another name to the list: Slovan Bratislava have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luis Chávez. The answer from Dinamo Moscow has not changed — yet.
Dinamo Makhachkala will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Dinamo Moscow were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Dinamo 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.
Dinamo Moscow have gone to Bodo/Glimt 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.
1 for Roberto Fernández, marked 7.76, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“I 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 Dinamo Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Dinamo Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.