From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Apr 2036
“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 The request is on a desk at Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Apr 2036
A falling-out at Druzhba
Ilja Ivanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Apr 2036
Kirill Sechkin 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 dugout14 Apr 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ramiro Martínez, and the manager let it.
Market14 Apr 2036
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market14 Apr 2036
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Druzhba money.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Apr 2036
47 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad7 Apr 2036
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava 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 Apr 2036
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Martínez 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.
Boardroom7 Apr 2036
$349.3K of the owner's money at Druzhba
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad7 Apr 2036
“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; Druzhba are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market7 Apr 2036
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout7 Apr 2036
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Druzhba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout7 Apr 2036
The manager has not finished forgetting Nicolò Gastaldello's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout7 Apr 2036
The manager makes an example of Bogdan Yefremov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Mar 2036
“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; Druzhba are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad31 Mar 2036
A falling-out at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Mar 2036
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Martínez 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.
Boardroom31 Mar 2036
The borrowing at Druzhba reaches $11.1M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $11.1M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The dugout31 Mar 2036
The manager makes an example of Thomas Selnaes
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market31 Mar 2036
The Eddi Tsanava story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Eddi Tsanava signs something — a contract at Druzhba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Mar 2036
Ramiro Martínez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Sechkin 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.
Boardroom24 Mar 2036
Druzhba cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The dugout24 Mar 2036
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market24 Mar 2036
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Druzhba know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market24 Mar 2036
The clock does Vadim Agafontsev’s negotiating for him
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Druzhba could ask drops and the wages Vadim Agafontsev can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Mar 2036
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market17 Mar 2036
A year in the wrong dressing room for Gennaro Baraldi
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 1 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Druzhba argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
The dugout17 Mar 2036
Vadim Agafontsev asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market17 Mar 2036
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Druzhba money.
Market17 Mar 2036
The Ilja Ivanov story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ilja Ivanov signs something — a contract at Druzhba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market17 Mar 2036
Druzhba have made Gennaro Baraldi available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match10 Mar 2036
First, on 47 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.
Market10 Mar 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Mar 2036
A falling-out at Druzhba
Ramiro Martínez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Mar 2036
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilja Ivanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch10 Mar 2036
“I did not go to Kyzyltash to sit and watch. I want to come back to Druzhba and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 25 matches say the rest.
The dugout10 Mar 2036
“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.
Market10 Mar 2036
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout10 Mar 2036
The manager has not finished forgetting Nicolò Gastaldello's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market10 Mar 2036
The name of Artem Ismagilov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Druzhba say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Mar 2036
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Ramiro Martínez 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.
Boardroom3 Mar 2036
$388.9K of the owner's money at Druzhba
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Transfer targets3 Mar 2036
Druzhba asked and Krasnodar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 Mar 2036
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Sechkin 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.
Boardroom3 Mar 2036
The Druzhba debt reaches $11.1M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
The dugout3 Mar 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to George James, and the manager let it.
Market3 Mar 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Druzhba, another week without a signature from Vadim Agafontsev.
Squad3 Mar 2036
George James has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Druzhba will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout3 Mar 2036
Stijn van Hoeck asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom25 Feb 2036
Druzhba close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 1 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.
Squad25 Feb 2036
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Ilja Ivanov 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 Feb 2036
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Martínez 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.
Transfer targets25 Feb 2036
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom25 Feb 2036
Druzhba cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Boardroom25 Feb 2036
Wages eat 98% of everything Druzhba earn
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.
Transfer targets25 Feb 2036
Krasnodar have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout25 Feb 2036
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Druzhba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout25 Feb 2036
The manager makes an example of Sergei Yevseyev
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets18 Feb 2036
The deal with Nizhniy Novgorod 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.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Eddi Tsanava 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.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Martínez 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.
Transfer targets18 Feb 2036
Druzhba asked and Chelyabinsk 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 dugout18 Feb 2036
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Druzhba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout18 Feb 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Lindelof, and the manager let it.
Market18 Feb 2036
The Ilja Ivanov story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ilja Ivanov signs something — a contract at Druzhba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market18 Feb 2036
The clock does Fedor Galochkin’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Druzhba could ask drops and the wages Fedor Galochkin can ask rise.
The terraces18 Feb 2036
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Druzhba would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match11 Feb 2036
47 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Market11 Feb 2036
“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 Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Feb 2036
Ilja Ivanov in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fakel have kept their man, and Druzhba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Feb 2036
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Sechkin 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 dugout11 Feb 2036
The manager makes an example of Kirill Sechkin
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad11 Feb 2036
“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 Druzhba know it.
Market11 Feb 2036
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Loan watch11 Feb 2036
“I did not go to Kyzyltash to sit and watch. I want to come back to Druzhba and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Feb 2036
“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.
Squad4 Feb 2036
Ilja Ivanov 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.
Squad4 Feb 2036
Ramiro Martínez 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.
Boardroom4 Feb 2036
The owner puts $268.6K into Druzhba
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Transfer targets4 Feb 2036
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom4 Feb 2036
Druzhba are $11.3M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout4 Feb 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vadim Agafontsev, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Feb 2036
“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 Druzhba know it.
Market4 Feb 2036
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Jan 2036
“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 Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Jan 2036
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Druzhba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Ramiro Martínez 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.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Ilja Ivanov 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.
Boardroom28 Jan 2036
No signings allowed at Druzhba
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Boardroom28 Jan 2036
Wages eat 118% of everything Druzhba earn
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.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thomas Selnaes, and the manager let it.
Market28 Jan 2036
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Druzhba know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Druzhba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Jan 2036
A fracture rules Eddi Tsanava out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Druzhba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Jan 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jan 2036
Ilja Ivanov 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.
Squad21 Jan 2036
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Druzhba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market21 Jan 2036
The Ilja Ivanov story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ilja Ivanov signs something — a contract at Druzhba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout21 Jan 2036
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 Dmitri Chernyshov has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Jan 2036
25 days out for Eddi Tsanava after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match14 Jan 2036
47 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
The dugout14 Jan 2036
Rinat Kankulov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Druzhba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Jan 2036
Ilja Ivanov in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jan 2036
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch14 Jan 2036
“I did not go to Kyzyltash to sit and watch. I want to come back to Druzhba and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
Market14 Jan 2036
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad14 Jan 2036
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Druzhba will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout14 Jan 2036
Aleksei Abakumov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Jan 2036
32 days out for Eddi Tsanava after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout7 Jan 2036
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad7 Jan 2036
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Druzhba had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad7 Jan 2036
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Ramiro Martínez 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 Jan 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Stijn van Hoeck commits to Druzhba for another 4 years.
Boardroom7 Jan 2036
The owner puts $248.3K into Druzhba
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
The dugout7 Jan 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ramiro Martínez, and the manager let it.
Boardroom7 Jan 2036
Druzhba are $11.3M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Market7 Jan 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Druzhba, another week without a signature from Ramiro Martínez.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Dec 2035
A fracture rules Eddi Tsanava out for 39 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Druzhba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Ilja Ivanov 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.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Sechkin 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.
Boardroom31 Dec 2035
Wages swallow 165% of the Druzhba income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout31 Dec 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilja Ivanov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom31 Dec 2035
No signings allowed at Druzhba
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
The dugout31 Dec 2035
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Druzhba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market31 Dec 2035
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Druzhba know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market31 Dec 2035
5 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Druzhba money.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Dec 2035
Eddi Tsanava breaks a bone — 46 days out
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.
Squad24 Dec 2035
A falling-out at Druzhba
Ilja Ivanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Martínez 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 dugout24 Dec 2035
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout24 Dec 2035
Ilja Ivanov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market24 Dec 2035
The Ilja Ivanov story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ilja Ivanov signs something — a contract at Druzhba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout24 Dec 2035
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.
Market24 Dec 2035
The clock does Vadim Agafontsev’s negotiating for him
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Druzhba could ask drops and the wages Vadim Agafontsev can ask rise.
Squad24 Dec 2035
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Druzhba the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Dec 2035
A fracture rules Eddi Tsanava out for 53 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Druzhba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match17 Dec 2035
47 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
The dugout17 Dec 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Druzhba may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 Dec 2035
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad17 Dec 2035
Ramiro Martínez 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.
Loan watch17 Dec 2035
“I watch every Druzhba game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kyzyltash runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout17 Dec 2035
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 dugout17 Dec 2035
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vadim Agafontsev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market17 Dec 2035
The name of Artem Ismagilov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Druzhba say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad10 Dec 2035
Eddi Tsanava breaks a bone — 60 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match10 Dec 2035
Full time on the season at Druzhba
Position 1 on 47 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.
Player ratings10 Dec 2035
A brace, and Ivan Pugachevskiy takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivan Pugachevskiy provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match8 Dec 2035
Nobody wants to play Druzhba right now
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.
Squad10 Dec 2035
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Ramiro Martínez 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.
Squad10 Dec 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Ivanov 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.
Match8 Dec 2035
Three points for Druzhba, 2‑1 the final word against Rotor in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout10 Dec 2035
The manager makes an example of Artem Ismagilov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings10 Dec 2035
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Dec 2035
67 days out for Eddi Tsanava after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match1 Dec 2035
Still nobody has beaten Druzhba
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Druzhba know now that the thought has arrived.
Squad3 Dec 2035
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom3 Dec 2035
$218.3K of the owner's money at Druzhba
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Boardroom3 Dec 2035
154% of the income goes out in wages at Druzhba
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.
Match1 Dec 2035
Rostov 2 made Druzhba work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Boardroom3 Dec 2035
No signings allowed at Druzhba
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Looking ahead3 Dec 2035
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Nov 2035
A fracture rules Eddi Tsanava out for 74 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Druzhba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match24 Nov 2035
11‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad26 Nov 2035
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad26 Nov 2035
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings26 Nov 2035
Two goals and a mark of 8.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The terraces26 Nov 2035
The town believes in Druzhba
Position 1, 41 points, and a ticket office that has not been this busy in years. Nobody says the word; everybody is thinking it.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Druzhba may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Nov 2035
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Druzhba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings26 Nov 2035
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.94 beside his name.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Nov 2035
A fracture rules Eddi Tsanava out for 81 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Druzhba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Nov 2035
First, on 38 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.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
Anton Lindelof: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Druzhba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Nov 2035
A falling-out at Druzhba
Ramiro Martínez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Sechkin 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Druzhba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Loan watch19 Nov 2035
“I did not go to Kyzyltash to sit and watch. I want to come back to Druzhba and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Market19 Nov 2035
Ilja Yurin is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Druzhba has been clear about where Ilja Yurin stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aleksei Abakumov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Nov 2035
88 days out for Eddi Tsanava after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Ilja Ivanov 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 Nov 2035
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitri Chernyshov, and the manager let it.
Market12 Nov 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Druzhba, another week without a signature from Kirill Sechkin.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Too much change too quickly at Druzhba
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
The team sheet said everything about Pavel Klinov
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Pavel Klinov.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Nov 2035
Eddi Tsanava breaks a bone — 95 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout5 Nov 2035
Matti Jensen: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Druzhba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Eddi Tsanava in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Martínez 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.
Boardroom5 Nov 2035
The owner puts $174.9K into Druzhba
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Player ratings5 Nov 2035
Leonid Belov beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match3 Nov 2035
Kuban made Druzhba work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Looking ahead5 Nov 2035
Top-of-the-table clash for Druzhba
Cherepovets 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.
The dugout5 Nov 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Boris Chaykovsky, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Oct 2035
A fracture rules Eddi Tsanava out for 102 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Druzhba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings29 Oct 2035
A brace, and Rafael Vidović takes the afternoon — 8.50
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rafael Vidović provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad29 Oct 2035
A falling-out at Druzhba
Ilja Ivanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match27 Oct 2035
It finished 2‑0, and it was Rafael Vidović’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Druzhba.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
“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.
Boardroom29 Oct 2035
Wages swallow 138% of the Druzhba income
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.
Boardroom29 Oct 2035
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Looking ahead29 Oct 2035
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.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafael Vidović 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match22 Oct 2035
First, on 31 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 ratings22 Oct 2035
A brace, and Rafael Vidović takes the afternoon — 8.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rafael Vidović provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad22 Oct 2035
Ramiro Martínez 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.
Looking ahead22 Oct 2035
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.
Match20 Oct 2035
Level with 92 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Druzhba had all but put away. Zenit 2 will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Player ratings22 Oct 2035
Chances created: 12. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Market22 Oct 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Druzhba, another week without a signature from Fedor Galochkin.
Loan watch22 Oct 2035
“I watch every Druzhba game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kyzyltash runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match20 Oct 2035
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market15 Oct 2035
“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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Ramiro Martínez 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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Ivanov 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 dugout15 Oct 2035
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market15 Oct 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Druzhba, another week without a signature from Ramiro Martínez.
Squad15 Oct 2035
11 new faces, and Druzhba 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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Druzhba know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market15 Oct 2035
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
The dugout15 Oct 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Nicolò Gastaldello's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
In brief
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Market
The Ilja Ivanov talk will not go away
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Boardroom
The Druzhba production line keeps running
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Looking ahead
Looking ahead: the trip to Zenit 2
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2035
The small margins put Druzhba out
Out, 0‑1 to Zarya Lugansk, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match6 Oct 2035
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 ratings8 Oct 2035
A brace, and Ivan Pugachevskiy takes the afternoon — 8.12
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivan Pugachevskiy provided it, and the 8.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad8 Oct 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Igor Atamanskiy commits to Druzhba for another 3 years.
Player ratings8 Oct 2035
Ramiro Martínez scored one and made one — 7.67
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.67, and 2 involvements.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Ramiro Martínez 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.
Boardroom8 Oct 2035
$74.6K of the owner's money at Druzhba
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
The dugout8 Oct 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Ismagilov, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Rafael Vidović 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
The dugout1 Oct 2035
Birger Haaland: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Druzhba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad1 Oct 2035
George James arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. George James has, at Druzhba, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Match29 Sep 2035
Druzhba are at home on the road
6 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.
Match29 Sep 2035
Druzhba make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Druzhba have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad1 Oct 2035
A falling-out at Druzhba
Ilja Ivanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Oct 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Martínez 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 dugout1 Oct 2035
The manager makes an example of Ramiro Martínez
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match29 Sep 2035
Three points for Druzhba, 1‑0 the final word against Chaika in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Boardroom1 Oct 2035
Druzhba cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
In brief
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Looking ahead
Top-of-the-table clash for Druzhba
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Boardroom
Druzhba are $11.0M in the red
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Boardroom
Wages swallow 117% of the Druzhba income
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match24 Sep 2035
The view from the top for Druzhba
24 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Match22 Sep 2035
Druzhba keep winning on the road
5 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Match22 Sep 2035
Druzhba cannot stop winning
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.
Squad24 Sep 2035
The medical room confirms 17 days on the sidelines for Dmitri Chernyshov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Ilja Ivanov in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Ivan Pugachevskiy 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 terraces24 Sep 2035
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match22 Sep 2035
Rotor made Druzhba work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match24 Sep 2035
Druzhba at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 1, 24 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Sep 2035
6‑0, and Sergei Yevseyev took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Druzhba tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
No sign of nerves from Sergei Yevseyev at 19 — 9.57
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sergei Yevseyev did not need any: 9.57, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad17 Sep 2035
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.08, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
Up for the corner, and Igor Atamanskiy delivers — 7.78
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Igor Atamanskiy scored, was marked 7.78, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Ilja Ivanov 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.
Match15 Sep 2035
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Druzhba and Rostov 2 in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad17 Sep 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pavel Klinov and Druzhba agree another 2 years.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
Chances created: 15. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Sep 2035
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Druzhba people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom10 Sep 2035
Window shuts: 19 in, 19 out at Druzhba
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 19 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets10 Sep 2035
The deal with Sokol 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.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Ilja Ivanov 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.
Transfer targets10 Sep 2035
Druzhba asked and Krasnodar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Pugachevskiy 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 dugout10 Sep 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alfredo Barrios, and the manager let it.
Boardroom10 Sep 2035
Nobody arrives at Druzhba until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Druzhba this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
Squad10 Sep 2035
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Druzhba know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets3 Sep 2035
The deal with Neftekhimik 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.
Squad3 Sep 2035
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava 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.
Match1 Sep 2035
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Druzhba. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Transfer targets3 Sep 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shinnik have kept their man, and Druzhba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Sep 2035
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilja Ivanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Sep 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitri Chernyshov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings3 Sep 2035
Kirill Volovich was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
Boardroom3 Sep 2035
Druzhba are $10.1M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match27 Aug 2035
The view from the top for Druzhba
15 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Market27 Aug 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Aug 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets27 Aug 2035
Druzhba asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Ivanov 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 dugout27 Aug 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Ismagilov, and the manager let it.
Match25 Aug 2035
Cherepovets left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match25 Aug 2035
After 5 games, Druzhba finally taste it again
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 Cherepovets; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Market27 Aug 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings20 Aug 2035
Two goals and a mark of 8.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market20 Aug 2035
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Druzhba people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match18 Aug 2035
Druzhba cannot stop winning
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market20 Aug 2035
“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.
Squad20 Aug 2035
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Ilja Ivanov 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.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2035
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad20 Aug 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Pugachevskiy 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.
Match18 Aug 2035
Kuban made Druzhba work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match18 Aug 2035
Druzhba keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market13 Aug 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Match11 Aug 2035
Druzhba cannot stop winning
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.
Player ratings13 Aug 2035
Igor Atamanskiy pops up at the right end — 7.56
7.56, 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.
Market13 Aug 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gennaro Baraldi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Druzhba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market13 Aug 2035
The shirt still fits. Rinat Kankulov is back at Druzhba, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Boardroom13 Aug 2035
Cherepovets will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Leonid Belov has pre-agreed a move to Druzhba, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad13 Aug 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Birger Haaland and Druzhba agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Amkar have kept their man, and Druzhba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad13 Aug 2035
Ilja Ivanov 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Boardroom6 Aug 2035
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Match4 Aug 2035
9‑1, and Ivan Pugachevskiy took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Druzhba tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings6 Aug 2035
Two goals and a mark of 9.08 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad6 Aug 2035
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad6 Aug 2035
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market6 Aug 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Market6 Aug 2035
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Druzhba have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad6 Aug 2035
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad6 Aug 2035
Eddi Tsanava has been here 10 seasons
342 appearances across 10 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market30 Jul 2035
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Spartak Nalchik waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Druzhba is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout30 Jul 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Druzhba may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Jul 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings30 Jul 2035
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 7.61 for the rest of it.
Market30 Jul 2035
Druzhba say no — this time
The offer from Ryazan for Mikhail Lyubimov 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.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2035
The deal with Amkar 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.
Squad30 Jul 2035
A falling-out at Druzhba
Ilja Ivanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom30 Jul 2035
Druzhba have asked about the manager
The approach has gone in and the answer belongs to Dnepr Mogilev. Business like this is done quietly and reported loudly, and rarely in that order.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Druzhba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market23 Jul 2035
“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.
The dugout23 Jul 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Druzhba may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Eddi Tsanava in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom23 Jul 2035
The approach has been made to Maipú and the answer is somebody else's to give. These things are settled in private and reported in public, usually in that order.
Boardroom23 Jul 2035
Still no name above the door at Druzhba
Day 8 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Moscow have kept their man, and Druzhba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Ivanov 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.
Match21 Jul 2035
It finished 2‑0, and it was Datuna Chighoshvili’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Druzhba.
Player ratings23 Jul 2035
Ilja Romaschuk was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom16 Jul 2035
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Boardroom16 Jul 2035
Druzhba have nobody left to take training
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Market16 Jul 2035
“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 Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom16 Jul 2035
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Market16 Jul 2035
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Alejandro Cordoba reports back to Druzhba with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad16 Jul 2035
A falling-out at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom16 Jul 2035
5 academy graduates step up at Druzhba
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
Druzhba 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.
Market16 Jul 2035
The academy exists for exactly this morning. German Lisitsin has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Jul 2035
18 days out for Kirill Volovich after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom9 Jul 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Druzhba
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market9 Jul 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Market9 Jul 2035
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Druzhba have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2035
Druzhba asked and Amkar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Jul 2035
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Pugachevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Jul 2035
A falling-out at Druzhba
Konstantin Simakov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market9 Jul 2035
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Druzhba have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout9 Jul 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fedor Galochkin, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Jul 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom2 Jul 2035
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom2 Jul 2035
The Druzhba board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market2 Jul 2035
Brian Kagere has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Druzhba they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2035
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Druzhba have done the hard part with Amkar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad2 Jul 2035
Eddi Tsanava 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.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2035
Druzhba asked and Dinamo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad2 Jul 2035
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Pugachevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom2 Jul 2035
4 new boys at the Druzhba academy
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Jun 2035
32 days out for Kirill Volovich after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market25 Jun 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Druzhba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom25 Jun 2035
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Marat Shayakhmetov has agreed terms with Amkar for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad25 Jun 2035
Ivan Pugachevskiy 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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2035
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad25 Jun 2035
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vadim Agafontsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Jun 2035
Nathan Ward gets it from the manager
“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.
Market25 Jun 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kirill Volovich signs something — a contract at Druzhba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout25 Jun 2035
Matti Jensen gets picked when it counts
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 Matti Jensen is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Jun 2035
A fracture rules Kirill Volovich out for 39 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Druzhba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market18 Jun 2035
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Uralets-TS waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Druzhba is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market18 Jun 2035
“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.
Boardroom18 Jun 2035
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mikhail Lyubimov 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.
Squad18 Jun 2035
A falling-out at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad18 Jun 2035
Ivan Pugachevskiy 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 dugout18 Jun 2035
The manager makes an example of Artem Ismagilov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market18 Jun 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Druzhba, another week without a signature from Fedor Galochkin.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jun 2035
A fracture rules Kirill Volovich out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Druzhba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom11 Jun 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Druzhba
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market11 Jun 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Market11 Jun 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Druzhba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Jun 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Pugachevskiy 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.
Squad11 Jun 2035
Datuna Chighoshvili 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 dugout11 Jun 2035
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Druzhba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market11 Jun 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout11 Jun 2035
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jun 2035
53 days out for Kirill Volovich after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Druzhba can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
Crisis meeting at Druzhba
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad4 Jun 2035
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Druzhba had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Market4 Jun 2035
Only the photograph left for Brian Kagere
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brian Kagere will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Druzhba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Jun 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market4 Jun 2035
A stepping stone, not a home, for Vadim Agafontsev
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Druzhba were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vadim Agafontsev 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 dugout4 Jun 2035
Artem Ismagilov without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Artem Ismagilov was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 May 2035
60 days out for Kirill Volovich after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad28 May 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 May 2035
Ivan Pugachevskiy 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 dugout28 May 2035
“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.
Market28 May 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Igor Atamanskiy signs something — a contract at Druzhba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market28 May 2035
The clock does Marat Shayakhmetov’s negotiating for him
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Druzhba could ask drops and the wages Marat Shayakhmetov can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 May 2035
67 days out for Kirill Volovich after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad21 May 2035
A falling-out at Druzhba
Stanislav Puzanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 May 2035
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Pugachevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 May 2035
“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; Druzhba are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout21 May 2035
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Druzhba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market21 May 2035
The name of Kirill Volovich keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Druzhba say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout21 May 2035
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.
Market21 May 2035
The clock does Igor Atamanskiy’s negotiating for him
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Druzhba could ask drops and the wages Igor Atamanskiy can ask rise.
The dugout21 May 2035
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 May 2035
74 days out for Kirill Volovich after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom14 May 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Druzhba
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market14 May 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 May 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Druzhba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 May 2035
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Stanislav Puzanov 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.
Market14 May 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad14 May 2035
Brian Kagere 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.
Market14 May 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Eddi Tsanava’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Match14 May 2035
Druzhba in the hunt for Europe
Position 4, 28 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 May 2035
A fracture rules Kirill Volovich out for 81 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Druzhba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom7 May 2035
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom7 May 2035
The Druzhba board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market7 May 2035
Brian Kagere has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Druzhba they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom7 May 2035
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.
Squad7 May 2035
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Pugachevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 May 2035
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Datuna Chighoshvili 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 May 2035
“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 Druzhba know it.
Market7 May 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Druzhba, another week without a signature from Yaroslav Voronkov.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Apr 2035
88 days out for Kirill Volovich after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market30 Apr 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Eddi Tsanava in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Pugachevskiy 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 dugout30 Apr 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yaroslav Voronkov, and the manager let it.
Market30 Apr 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Igor Atamanskiy signs something — a contract at Druzhba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Apr 2035
95 days out for Kirill Volovich after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market23 Apr 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Apr 2035
A falling-out at Druzhba
Stanislav Puzanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Apr 2035
A promise honoured at Druzhba
Something was said to Igor Atamanskiy and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad23 Apr 2035
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alfredo Barrios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Apr 2035
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Druzhba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout23 Apr 2035
“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.
Market23 Apr 2035
The name of Kirill Volovich keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Druzhba say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout23 Apr 2035
Matti Jensen gets picked when it counts
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 Matti Jensen is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Apr 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 102 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom16 Apr 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Druzhba
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market16 Apr 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikhail Lyubimov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Druzhba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Stanislav Puzanov 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.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Ivan Pugachevskiy 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.
Boardroom16 Apr 2035
Wages eat 85% of everything Druzhba earn
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.
Market16 Apr 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Eddi Tsanava’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Druzhba. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad16 Apr 2035
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Druzhba will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Apr 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 109 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market9 Apr 2035
“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 Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Apr 2035
Only the photograph left for Brian Kagere
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brian Kagere will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Druzhba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Apr 2035
Stanislav Puzanov 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.
Squad9 Apr 2035
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Pugachevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Apr 2035
“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.
Boardroom9 Apr 2035
Nobody arrives at Druzhba until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Druzhba this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
The dugout9 Apr 2035
Kirill Volovich asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market9 Apr 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yaroslav Voronkov signs something — a contract at Druzhba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Apr 2035
A fracture rules Kirill Volovich out for 116 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Druzhba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom2 Apr 2035
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Druzhba can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market2 Apr 2035
“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 Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom2 Apr 2035
Emergency meeting at Druzhba
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Squad2 Apr 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout2 Apr 2035
The manager's exit leaves Artem Ismagilov exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Artem Ismagilov is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout2 Apr 2035
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kirill Volovich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad2 Apr 2035
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brian Kagere was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Mar 2035
A fracture rules Igor Atamanskiy out for 84 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Druzhba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market26 Mar 2035
“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 Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Mar 2035
A falling-out at Druzhba
Stanislav Puzanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Mar 2035
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Pugachevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Mar 2035
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad26 Mar 2035
5 new faces, and Druzhba 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.
Market26 Mar 2035
The name of Kirill Volovich keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Druzhba say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout26 Mar 2035
Matti Jensen gets picked when it counts
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 Matti Jensen is on it.
The dugout26 Mar 2035
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Druzhba. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Mar 2035
A fracture rules Igor Atamanskiy out for 91 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Druzhba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom19 Mar 2035
The scrutiny sharpens at Druzhba
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Druzhba is running low.
Market19 Mar 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikhail Lyubimov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Druzhba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom19 Mar 2035
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Brian Kagere has agreed terms with Rubin Yalta for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad19 Mar 2035
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Pugachevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Datuna Chighoshvili 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.
Squad19 Mar 2035
“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; Druzhba are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom19 Mar 2035
Wages swallow 90% of the Druzhba income
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.
Market19 Mar 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Mar 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market12 Mar 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Druzhba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Eddi Tsanava 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 Mar 2035
Ilja Romaschuk pulls a muscle — 15 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout12 Mar 2035
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad12 Mar 2035
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Market12 Mar 2035
A stepping stone, not a home, for Thomas Selnaes
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Druzhba were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Market12 Mar 2035
He is 19, and nobody at Druzhba signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Boardroom12 Mar 2035
Druzhba have to sell first
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Mar 2035
105 days out for Igor Atamanskiy after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom5 Mar 2035
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Mar 2035
“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 Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Mar 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Druzhba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market5 Mar 2035
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Druzhba have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Birger Haaland gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Birger Haaland has just signed for Druzhba, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom5 Mar 2035
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Abdulhameed Lukman 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.
Squad5 Mar 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Mar 2035
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Pugachevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Feb 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 112 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom26 Feb 2035
Window shuts: 1 in, 4 out at Druzhba
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad26 Feb 2035
A falling-out at Druzhba
Stanislav Puzanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Pugachevskiy 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.
Market26 Feb 2035
The name of Kirill Volovich keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Druzhba say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout26 Feb 2035
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.
Market26 Feb 2035
5 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Druzhba money.
The dugout26 Feb 2035
Brian Kagere knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Brian Kagere trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market26 Feb 2035
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Nazar Terpugov leaves Druzhba the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Feb 2035
A fracture rules Igor Atamanskiy out for 119 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Druzhba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom19 Feb 2035
The scrutiny sharpens at Druzhba
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Druzhba is running low.
Market19 Feb 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Market19 Feb 2035
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Mikhail Lyubimov reports back to Druzhba with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Stanislav Puzanov 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.
Transfer targets19 Feb 2035
Druzhba asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout19 Feb 2035
“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.
Market19 Feb 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Boardroom19 Feb 2035
Wages eat 86% of everything Druzhba earn
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Feb 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market12 Feb 2035
“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 Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Feb 2035
Stanislav Puzanov 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 Feb 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Pugachevskiy 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.
Boardroom12 Feb 2035
Druzhba have to sell first
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
Market12 Feb 2035
Druzhba have made Nazar Terpugov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market12 Feb 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout12 Feb 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matti Jensen, and the manager let it.
Market12 Feb 2035
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Druzhba money.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Feb 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 133 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market5 Feb 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Feb 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Pugachevskiy 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 dugout5 Feb 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Konstantin Simakov, and the manager let it.
Market5 Feb 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market5 Feb 2035
Still no offer on the table, and Igor Atamanskiy’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2035
CSKA Moscow have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market29 Jan 2035
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Druzhba people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Jan 2035
“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.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2035
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market29 Jan 2035
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Nazar Terpugov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Druzhba.
Squad29 Jan 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market29 Jan 2035
He is 20, and nobody at Druzhba signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout29 Jan 2035
The manager makes an example of Brian Kagere
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout29 Jan 2035
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom22 Jan 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Druzhba
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market22 Jan 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikhail Lyubimov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Druzhba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Ivan Pugachevskiy 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.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Datuna Chighoshvili 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 dugout22 Jan 2035
“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.
Boardroom22 Jan 2035
Wages swallow 100% of the Druzhba income
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.
Market22 Jan 2035
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Druzhba know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout22 Jan 2035
Matti Jensen gets picked when it counts
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 Matti Jensen is on it.
The dugout22 Jan 2035
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 Konstantin Simakov has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Jan 2035
Stanislav Puzanov 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.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Pugachevskiy 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 dugout15 Jan 2035
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad15 Jan 2035
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Druzhba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom15 Jan 2035
Druzhba have to sell first
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
Market15 Jan 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nazar Terpugov signs something — a contract at Druzhba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Match15 Jan 2035
Continental football is in reach for Druzhba
28 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
The dugout15 Jan 2035
Brian Kagere has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Druzhba 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.
Squad15 Jan 2035
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Druzhba has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom8 Jan 2035
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Druzhba can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market8 Jan 2035
“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 Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Artem Ismagilov arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Artem Ismagilov has, at Druzhba, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The dugout8 Jan 2035
Matti Jensen: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Druzhba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Stanislav Puzanov 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.
Squad8 Jan 2035
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Druzhba know which stage they are at.
The dugout8 Jan 2035
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Stanislav Puzanov was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The dugout8 Jan 2035
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout8 Jan 2035
Sander Riise gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Jan 2035
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 Druzhba have had the benefit of it.
Squad1 Jan 2035
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Yaroslav Voronkov
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Druzhba will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad1 Jan 2035
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Stanislav Puzanov 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 dugout1 Jan 2035
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market1 Jan 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout1 Jan 2035
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Stanislav Puzanov is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Squad1 Jan 2035
Matti Jensen 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 dugout1 Jan 2035
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marat Shayakhmetov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market1 Jan 2035
The name of Yaroslav Voronkov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Druzhba say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom25 Dec 2034
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Druzhba
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market25 Dec 2034
“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 Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Dec 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Druzhba they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Dec 2034
A falling-out at Druzhba
Stanislav Puzanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom25 Dec 2034
Wages swallow 113% of the Druzhba income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout25 Dec 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Datuna Chighoshvili, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Matti Jensen 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 dugout25 Dec 2034
Eddi Tsanava knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Eddi Tsanava trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market25 Dec 2034
The name of Kirill Volovich keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Druzhba say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Dec 2034
“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.
The dugout18 Dec 2034
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Druzhba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad18 Dec 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout18 Dec 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolò Gastaldello, and the manager let it.
Market18 Dec 2034
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Druzhba has been clear about where Datuna Chighoshvili stands, which is more than many ever get.
Boardroom18 Dec 2034
Nobody arrives at Druzhba until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Druzhba this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
The dugout18 Dec 2034
Eddi Tsanava knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Eddi Tsanava trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad18 Dec 2034
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Druzhba will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Market18 Dec 2034
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Druzhba could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Dec 2034
“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.
Market11 Dec 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Druzhba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Ivan Pugachevskiy 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.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Datuna Chighoshvili 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.
Market11 Dec 2034
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market11 Dec 2034
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Druzhba money.
The dugout11 Dec 2034
Matti Jensen gets picked when it counts
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 Matti Jensen is on it.
The dugout11 Dec 2034
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The dugout11 Dec 2034
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Datuna Chighoshvili trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom4 Dec 2034
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market4 Dec 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Match4 Dec 2034
Full time on the season at Druzhba
Position 4 on 28 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.
Squad4 Dec 2034
A falling-out at Druzhba
Ivan Pugachevskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match2 Dec 2034
Ilja Romaschuk scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Akron 2, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad4 Dec 2034
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Match2 Dec 2034
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout4 Dec 2034
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market4 Dec 2034
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Boardroom27 Nov 2034
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Druzhba
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Player ratings27 Nov 2034
A brace, and Nazar Terpugov takes the afternoon — 8.75
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nazar Terpugov provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match27 Nov 2034
Druzhba refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 28 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.
Match25 Nov 2034
Druzhba make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Druzhba have 4 straight wins of it.
Market27 Nov 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikhail Lyubimov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Druzhba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Nov 2034
A falling-out at Druzhba
Stanislav Puzanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match25 Nov 2034
Three points for Druzhba, 2‑0 the final word against Rotor in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Looking ahead27 Nov 2034
Top-of-the-table clash for Druzhba
Akron 2 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.
Boardroom27 Nov 2034
118% of the income goes out in wages at Druzhba
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Nov 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Pugachevskiy 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 dugout20 Nov 2034
“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.
Market20 Nov 2034
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Druzhba, another week without a signature from Marat Shayakhmetov.
Boardroom20 Nov 2034
Nobody arrives at Druzhba until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Druzhba this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
Market20 Nov 2034
The clock does Jiří Novotný’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Druzhba could ask drops and the wages Jiří Novotný can ask rise.
Market20 Nov 2034
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nazar Terpugov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout20 Nov 2034
Brian Kagere has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Druzhba 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.
Match20 Nov 2034
Continental football is in reach for Druzhba
25 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market13 Nov 2034
“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.
Market13 Nov 2034
Only the photograph left for Jiří Novotný
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jiří Novotný will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Druzhba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings13 Nov 2034
Up for the corner, and Igor Atamanskiy delivers — 7.64
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Igor Atamanskiy scored, was marked 7.64, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Match11 Nov 2034
Druzhba make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Druzhba have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad13 Nov 2034
Stanislav Puzanov 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.
Match11 Nov 2034
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ilja Romaschuk. 2‑1 against KAMAZ, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout13 Nov 2034
“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.
Player ratings13 Nov 2034
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad13 Nov 2034
“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; Druzhba are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match4 Nov 2034
9‑1, and Nazar Terpugov took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Druzhba tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad6 Nov 2034
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Boardroom6 Nov 2034
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market6 Nov 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings6 Nov 2034
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.27, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings6 Nov 2034
A brace, and Ivan Pugachevskiy takes the afternoon — 8.24
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivan Pugachevskiy provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout6 Nov 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Druzhba may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings6 Nov 2034
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. 15 actions, 7.32, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Stanislav Puzanov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Oct 2034
“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.
Match28 Oct 2034
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Kirill Volovich scored in the 88th minute, Dinamo Makhachkala 2 had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Druzhba took the lot.
Boardroom30 Oct 2034
The scrutiny sharpens at Druzhba
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Druzhba is running low.
Market30 Oct 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Druzhba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Oct 2034
A falling-out at Druzhba
Stanislav Puzanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Oct 2034
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Pugachevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces30 Oct 2034
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Dmitri Chernyshov 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.
Player ratings30 Oct 2034
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.40, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
In brief
-
Boardroom
Wages swallow 123% of the Druzhba income
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
-
The dugout
Konstantin Simakov left out for the big one
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Oct 2034
“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.
Squad23 Oct 2034
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Pugachevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Oct 2034
A falling-out at Druzhba
Datuna Chighoshvili and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Oct 2034
“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.
Match21 Oct 2034
It needed Ilja Romaschuk to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Kuban, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout23 Oct 2034
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout23 Oct 2034
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Looking ahead23 Oct 2034
Dinamo Makhachkala 2 next, and one man in the Druzhba dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market23 Oct 2034
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kirill Volovich signs something — a contract at Druzhba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Oct 2034
“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.
Market16 Oct 2034
Jiří Novotný has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Druzhba they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom16 Oct 2034
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jiří Novotný has agreed terms with Spartak Tambov for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad16 Oct 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom16 Oct 2034
Druzhba can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
Squad16 Oct 2034
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Druzhba will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Looking ahead16 Oct 2034
Kuban next, and one man in the Druzhba dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market16 Oct 2034
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Druzhba money.
Market16 Oct 2034
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nazar Terpugov signs something — a contract at Druzhba or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Oct 2034
Druzhba bow out of the cup
Ryazan go through and Druzhba go home, 2‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings9 Oct 2034
Matti Jensen, 21, steals the show — 8.12
Marked 8.12 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad9 Oct 2034
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Stanislav Puzanov 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.
Player ratings9 Oct 2034
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad9 Oct 2034
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Pugachevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces9 Oct 2034
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.
Match7 Oct 2034
Three points for Druzhba, 1‑0 the final word against Alania in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings9 Oct 2034
Sander Riise did the work nobody counts — 6.92
11 combined actions and 6.92. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout9 Oct 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Konstantin Simakov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Oct 2034
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Druzhba
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market2 Oct 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Druzhba they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad2 Oct 2034
A falling-out at Druzhba
Stanislav Puzanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout2 Oct 2034
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings2 Oct 2034
A performance of 8.28 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match30 Sep 2034
The goal that put Dinamo St Petersburg ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Druzhba equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Boardroom2 Oct 2034
107% of the income goes out in wages at Druzhba
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.
Market2 Oct 2034
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad2 Oct 2034
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Sep 2034
Eddi Tsanava in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Sep 2034
A bad afternoon for Druzhba against Zenit 2
0‑2 to Zenit 2, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout25 Sep 2034
“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.
Squad25 Sep 2034
“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; Druzhba are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Too much change too quickly at Druzhba
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Jiří Novotný lets one through his hands
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The dugout25 Sep 2034
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout25 Sep 2034
Jiří Novotný is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Sep 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Match18 Sep 2034
Druzhba sink to position 8
11 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad18 Sep 2034
Eddi Tsanava 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.
Squad18 Sep 2034
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Pugachevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match16 Sep 2034
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kirill Volovich. 1‑0 against Akron 2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad18 Sep 2034
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Druzhba is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The dugout18 Sep 2034
“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.
Squad18 Sep 2034
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Player ratings18 Sep 2034
Kirill Volovich was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Sep 2034
“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 Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Sep 2034
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Druzhba have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom11 Sep 2034
Druzhba close the window on a squad of their own making
22 in and 16 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.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava 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 dugout11 Sep 2034
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad11 Sep 2034
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Druzhba will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Boardroom11 Sep 2034
Druzhba can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Matti Jensen 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.
Market11 Sep 2034
The name of Yaroslav Voronkov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Druzhba say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Sep 2034
It had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad4 Sep 2034
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Dmitri Chernyshov 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.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2034
Druzhba asked and Krasnodar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match2 Sep 2034
Druzhba get the job done against Rotor
A 1‑0 win over Rotor, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout4 Sep 2034
“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.
Player ratings4 Sep 2034
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.88 on the card, and the Druzhba support went home talking about one name.
Boardroom4 Sep 2034
Wages eat 96% of everything Druzhba earn
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.
Market4 Sep 2034
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Player ratings4 Sep 2034
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Aug 2034
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Druzhba have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match26 Aug 2034
No end in sight to Druzhba's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Druzhba has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2034
Everything agreed with Rostov, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Eddi Tsanava in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2034
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rostov have kept their man, and Druzhba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Ivan Pugachevskiy 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.
Match26 Aug 2034
KAMAZ left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Aug 2034
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Aug 2034
Druzhba are in real trouble now
Position 9, 5 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad21 Aug 2034
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match19 Aug 2034
No end in sight to Druzhba's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Druzhba has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings21 Aug 2034
Chances created: 19. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2034
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Druzhba have done the hard part with Akron, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match19 Aug 2034
Nazar Terpugov among the goals in a wild afternoon
8 goals in one match, Nazar Terpugov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Druzhba and Baltika 2.
Squad21 Aug 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Aug 2034
Marked 9.60 — 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.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2034
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Aug 2034
The wait goes on for Druzhba
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.
Squad14 Aug 2034
A falling-out at Druzhba
Ivan Pugachevskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2034
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rostov have kept their man, and Druzhba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout14 Aug 2034
“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.
Player ratings14 Aug 2034
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match12 Aug 2034
Late, late show earns Druzhba a point
Minute 92, against Dinamo Makhachkala 2, 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.
Market14 Aug 2034
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2034
A loan move for Denis Bogatikov is in the works
Druzhba have made the call to Rostov. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Aug 2034
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Druzhba have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad7 Aug 2034
456 appearances across 10 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.
Match5 Aug 2034
No end in sight to Druzhba's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Druzhba has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Aug 2034
A falling-out at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2034
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Aug 2034
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Druzhba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Ivan Pugachevskiy 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.
Match5 Aug 2034
Kuban left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout7 Aug 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jiří Novotný, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Jul 2034
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Druzhba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market31 Jul 2034
“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 Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Ivan Pugachevskiy 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.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2034
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Druzhba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings31 Jul 2034
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match29 Jul 2034
No time for Alania to settle
The goal that put Alania ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Druzhba equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2034
A loan enquiry to Rostov: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Match29 Jul 2034
A 1‑1 draw with Alania leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
In brief
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Market
Mikhail Lyubimov is free to find somewhere else
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Matti Jensen falls out with a teammate over standards
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Jul 2034
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad24 Jul 2034
Eddi Tsanava 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.
Player ratings24 Jul 2034
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2034
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Jul 2034
Druzhba are still strangers to each other
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.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2034
A loan enquiry to CSKA Moscow: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2034
A loan move for Nazar Makeev is in the works
Druzhba have made the call to Arsenal Tula. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Match22 Jul 2034
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad24 Jul 2034
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Druzhba know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jul 2034
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout17 Jul 2034
Mikhail Lyubimov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Druzhba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad17 Jul 2034
A falling-out at Druzhba
Dmitri Chernyshov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom17 Jul 2034
8 academy players handed senior numbers at Druzhba
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Boardroom17 Jul 2034
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Evgeny Tonevitskiy has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Druzhba have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2034
Druzhba asked and Ural said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Ivan Pugachevskiy 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.
Market17 Jul 2034
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vsevolod Yevseyev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market17 Jul 2034
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Stepan Anokhin has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Jul 2034
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Druzhba people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad10 Jul 2034
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Druzhba will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 Jul 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Druzhba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market10 Jul 2034
“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 Druzhba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2034
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Spartak Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Jul 2034
A falling-out at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2034
Druzhba asked and Telavi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Jul 2034
Konstantin Simakov 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 dugout10 Jul 2034
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad3 Jul 2034
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Druzhba will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2034
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Krylya Sovetov is saying, and nobody at Druzhba is enjoying the guessing.
Squad3 Jul 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Eddi Tsanava and Druzhba agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Ivan Pugachevskiy 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.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2034
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Druzhba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout3 Jul 2034
The manager makes an example of Kirill Volovich
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Ilja Romaschuk slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ilja Romaschuk is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Jun 2034
The view from the top for Druzhba
24 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Boardroom26 Jun 2034
Pressure builds in the Druzhba boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market26 Jun 2034
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Druzhba people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad26 Jun 2034
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Datuna Chighoshvili 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.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2034
Druzhba asked and Dinamo Makhachkala said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jun 2034
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Pugachevskiy 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 dugout26 Jun 2034
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout26 Jun 2034
Kirill Volovich asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market26 Jun 2034
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Druzhba money.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Jun 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2034
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.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava 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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2034
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Makhachkala have kept their man, and Druzhba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jun 2034
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Richard Dixon
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Druzhba will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Matti Jensen 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 dugout19 Jun 2034
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Druzhba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market19 Jun 2034
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Vincenzo Pio Grimaldi has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Druzhba.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jun 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vagab Budaikhanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Druzhba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Ivan Pugachevskiy 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.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Konstantin Simakov 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.
Squad12 Jun 2034
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Druzhba will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market12 Jun 2034
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Druzhba, another week without a signature from Jiří Novotný.
Boardroom12 Jun 2034
Druzhba have to sell first
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Druzhba can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Ivan Pugachevskiy arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ivan Pugachevskiy has, at Druzhba, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad5 Jun 2034
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Druzhba had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Market5 Jun 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mikhail Lyubimov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Druzhba the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Eddi Tsanava in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Druzhba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
SKA Khabarovsk will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Evgeny Lukinykh has pre-agreed a move to Druzhba, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad5 Jun 2034
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Pugachevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market5 Jun 2034
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Druzhba, another week without a signature from Ivan Pugachevskiy.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match29 May 2034
24 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Boardroom29 May 2034
The scrutiny sharpens at Druzhba
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Druzhba is running low.
Squad29 May 2034
Daniil Kashmin 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 dugout29 May 2034
“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.
Market29 May 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Druzhba know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market29 May 2034
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Druzhba could get for him.
Squad29 May 2034
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout29 May 2034
Anatoly Silaev knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Anatoly Silaev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad29 May 2034
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Druzhba the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 May 2034
Words exchanged at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava 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.
Squad22 May 2034
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konstantin Simakov 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.
Squad22 May 2034
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Druzhba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad22 May 2034
Too much change too quickly at Druzhba
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout22 May 2034
Eddi Tsanava knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Druzhba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout22 May 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erdem Demiral, and the manager let it.