Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Nuri Abdokov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Nuri Abdokov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fakel people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Nikolay Giorgobiani was one of the reasons people came, and $1.5M does not replace that by itself.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fakel can pretend not to have heard.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Nuri Abdokov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gennady Chernyshov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Saturn waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fakel is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fakel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Oleg Borisov 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fakel can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Irtysh for Kirill Simonov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The name of Nikolay Giorgobiani has come up in conversations Fakel were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fakel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clayton Sampaio is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fakel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Gennady Chernyshov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Darko Todorović is on it.
In brief
The dugoutAnton Kovalev loses the manager who believed in him
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fakel people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clayton Sampaio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nizhniy Novgorod have kept their man, and Fakel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Fakel will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Max Dziov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Alexandr Reiz has written the date down.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fakel have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fakel can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vitaly Borsuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fakel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Yegor Shalimov has agreed terms with Spartak Kostroma for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $3.5K of what Fakel paid for Evgeny Markov is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fakel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Navbahor paid $170.0K and Fakel took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Vyacheslav Yakimov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdula Bagamaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 18, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexandr Reiz'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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kirill Simonov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fakel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nuri Abdokov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fakel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nuri Abdokov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fakel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexandr Reiz is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martin Kramarič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fakel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clayton Sampaio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Evgeny Markov is on it.
The dugout15 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexandr Reiz'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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kirill Simonov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fakel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clayton Sampaio 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.
Bence Batik and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every 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.
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 Darko Todorović is on it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Fakel has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Martin Kramarič was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rassambek Akhmatov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fakel has been clear about where Vyacheslav Yakimov stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Squad1 May 2028
11 new faces, and Fakel 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.
In brief
The dugoutAnton Kovalev has become a man the manager trusts
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fakel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nikolay Giorgobiani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clayton Sampaio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Dmitry Lesnikov is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dmitry Lesnikov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Abdula Bagamaev has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Something was said to Martin Kramarič and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexandr Reiz'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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fakel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kirill Simonov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fakel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every 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 Darko Todorović is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdula Bagamaev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Fakel will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Position 9 on 46 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Darko Todorović was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
11 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fakel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clayton Sampaio 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.
Tyler Smith and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Dmitry Lesnikov is on it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Evgeny Markov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Fakel needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Abdula Bagamaev has written the date down.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fakel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fakel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Gennady Chernyshov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fakel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Martin Kramarič 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dmitry Kuroshev has just signed for Fakel, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martin Kramarič was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Alania waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fakel is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Fakel is running low.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
A brace, and Merabi Uridia takes the afternoon — 8.64
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Merabi Uridia provided it, and the 8.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Orenburg for Evgeny Markov 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.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Fakel close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 7 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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexandr Reiz is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Merabi Uridia 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Fakel and Arsenal Tula, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fakel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Fakel and Sokol, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dmitry Lesnikov. 4‑2 against Sokol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Nizhniy Novgorod pay $95.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fakel have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The phone has started ringing about Belajdi Pusi again, and this time the name on the line is Lokomotiv Moscow. Fakel are listening politely and promising nothing.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Orenburg keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The fee is $180.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lokomotiv Moscow drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Nuri Abdokov 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.
Fakel 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateusz Karol was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Fakel can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fakel can pretend not to have heard.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Igor Obukhov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer went to Lokomotiv Moscow this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSK Pervorechenskoe have kept their man, and Fakel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateusz Karol is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Fakel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sibir waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fakel is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fakel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Fakel will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdula Bagamaev 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Mikhail Tsulaia reports back to Fakel with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Abdula Bagamaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Gennady Chernyshov to a room that had heard them before.
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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Evgeny Markov
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdula Bagamaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Gennady Chernyshov chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Alexandr Reiz 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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Belajdi Pusi has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Nuri Abdokov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Belajdi Pusi. 3‑1 against Rotor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.65, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
1‑5 to Torpedo Moscow, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fakel can pretend not to have heard.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Fakel and Torpedo Moscow in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Arustamyan 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.
Nuri Abdokov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdula Bagamaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gennady Chernyshov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdula Bagamaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Nobody at Fakel will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fakel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexandr Reiz is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Abdula Bagamaev 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.
12 combined actions and 6.74. 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artur Arustamyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It needed Belajdi Pusi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Spartak Kostroma, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
7.27, 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Fakel and Chelyabinsk in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdula Bagamaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dmitry Lesnikov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nikolay Giorgobiani is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.77, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdula Bagamaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gennady Chernyshov on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Sochi kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Fakel will be asked about the last half hour all week.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.35 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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. 7.61 beside his name.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdula Bagamaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stanislav Magkeev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Nizhniy Novgorod.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Nizhniy Novgorod in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Nuri Abdokov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdula Bagamaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fakel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Gennady Chernyshov was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Fakel dressing room was either.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“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 Fakel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nuri Abdokov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every 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.
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.
“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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
5 new faces, and Fakel 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fakel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Tyumen next, and one man in the Fakel dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fakel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Fakel found something the first half had given no notice of, and KDV Tomsk could not hold what they had.
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. 7.80 beside his name.
Max Dziov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“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 ratings18 Oct 2027
Anton Kovalev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. 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.
Darko Todorović was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Arustamyan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody will confirm 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Fakel will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Merabi Uridia signs something — a contract at Fakel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Still no offer on the table, and Bulat Sadykov’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Vitaly Shitov has written the date down.
Darko Todorović and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdula Bagamaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Nizhniy Novgorod moved on, Abdula Bagamaev reports back to Fakel, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gennady Chernyshov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Chelyabinsk had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The offer from Tyumen for Vitaly Shitov 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.
“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 Fakel, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 15 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdula Bagamaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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 Fakel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Akhmat Grozny paid $1.2M and Fakel took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Yury Zhuravlev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artur Arustamyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Chelyabinsk will make the call about Abdula Bagamaev this week. Fakel have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
5 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fakel can pretend not to have heard.
Max Dziov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artur Arustamyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The offer from Aktobe for Merabi Uridia 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fakel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Rotor made Fakel work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Butta Magomedov 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.77, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdula Bagamaev 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gennady Chernyshov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Torpedo Moscow will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The phone has started ringing about Yury Zhuravlev again, and this time the name on the line is Tyumen. Fakel are listening politely and promising nothing.
Darko Todorović 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.
Fakel asked and Radnicki Nis 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 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.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Fakel can tell you which week it ends in.
Fakel asked and Newell's Old Boys said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artur Arustamyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad9 Aug 2027
6 new faces, and Fakel 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dmitry Yefremov has his answer from Fakel; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Belajdi Pusi 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.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
Fakel asked and Estudiantes de Merida said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fakel has been clear about where Artur Arustamyan stands, which is more than many ever get.
It involved Abdula Bagamaev, it was loud enough to reach the car park, and it was over by lunch. Dressing rooms run hot; the ones that should worry you are the silent ones.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The first defeat in 11 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Spartak Kostroma; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artur Arustamyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gennady Chernyshov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fakel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
Fakel had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Slavia Sofia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdula Bagamaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Fakel have made the call to Slavia Sofia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
6 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.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fakel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Arsenal Tula have accepted the money. What Fakel do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rostov keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fakel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Torpedo-BelAZ waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fakel is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Gomel had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Fakel had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Alania, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dmitry Lesnikov is living that version at Fakel, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fakel asked and Leningradets said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fakel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Bunyodkor had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fakel have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ural is saying, and nobody at Fakel is enjoying the guessing.
The deal with Volgar 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.
$560.0K on the table at Alania. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fakel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fakel can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdula Bagamaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A 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 Ravil Netfullin has written the date down.
The words a physio says slowly. 48 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Fakel will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Kirill Simonov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yury Zhuravlev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fakel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fakel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Fakel. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
4 shut-outs in 12 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Vyacheslav Dorovskikh has been having a lot of them.
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fakel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yury Zhuravlev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Fakel, and 7 appearances in 38 say he has earned the hearing.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Fakel. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 62 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Darko Todorović was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Belajdi Pusi signs something — a contract at Fakel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Position 5, 49 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.
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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Kirill Simonov’s exile
The dugoutVitaly Shitov knocks on the manager's door
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fakel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dawid Drachal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fakel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 76 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fakel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
12 appearances at Kaluga and the goals have stopped going in. Fakel lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fakel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Fakel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Torpedo Miass runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fakel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fakel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dawid Drachal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fakel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Belajdi Pusi signs something — a contract at Fakel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Fakel 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.
Position 5, 49 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dawid Drachal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fakel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Vyacheslav Yakimov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ravil Netfullin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Fakel, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
“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.
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.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fakel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Darko Todorović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Dawid Drachal 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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Fakel prefer.
“I watch every Fakel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Torpedo Miass runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Stanislav Magkeev.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Nuri Abdokov
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fakel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dawid Drachal is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fakel has been clear about where Ravil Netfullin stands, which is more than many ever get.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Chaika in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fakel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1 for Butta Magomedov, marked 7.74, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Dawid Drachal 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ravil Netfullin 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.
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.
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fakel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Belajdi Pusi scored in the 86th minute, KAMAZ had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Fakel took the lot.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dawid Drachal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Gennady Chernyshov could afford to be generous.
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fakel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Spartak Nalchik for Ilnur Alshin 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.
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Dawid Drachal falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.90, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Arsenal Tula scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Belajdi Pusi
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fakel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Clayton Sampaio scored, was marked 7.85, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Fakel until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darko Todorović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Fakel know it.
87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fakel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Neman waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fakel is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fakel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Fakel, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.2M — a club that wants Ruslanbek Jiyanov enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darko Todorović 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.
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.
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fakel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
$5.4M on the table at Navbahor. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rostov keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $450.6K — a club that wants Ilja Pomazun enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Neftekhimik this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The words a physio says slowly. 102 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Evgeny Markov is a Fakel player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
$330.0K on the table at Spartak Moscow. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Fakel have gone to Rostov with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darko Todorović 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Nuri Abdokov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Butta Magomedov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dawid Drachal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Gennady Chernyshov could afford to be generous.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darko Todorović 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.
Matvey Bardachev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Igor Yurganov
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dawid Drachal is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darko Todorović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Maxim Turischev 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fakel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dawid Drachal is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Nobody 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 dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Gennady Chernyshov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Torpedo Moscow in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
8 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Artem Shestopalov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Something was said to Butta Magomedov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darko Todorović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 2‑1 win over SKA Khabarovsk, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Vitaly Shitov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Gennady Chernyshov kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Nobody at Fakel is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“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 Fakel, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 12, 21 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Vitaly Borsuk 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darko Todorović 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Darko Todorović has come out of that comparison in the side, and Fakel have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Matvey Bardachev has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Merabi Uridia has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Daniil Frolkin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Fakel needing him to play as if none of it matters.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.48 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fakel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
1 for Butta Magomedov, marked 7.82, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The 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.
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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A brace, and Belajdi Pusi takes the afternoon — 8.81
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Belajdi Pusi provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dawid Drachal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Maxim Turischev 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Gennady Chernyshov kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Something was said to Artur Arustamyan and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Igor Yurganov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darko Todorović 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.
Vyacheslav Yakimov 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.
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.
Rotor next, and one man in the Fakel dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fakel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Next up on the road: Rotor, position 2. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
Darko Todorović and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dawid Drachal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Belajdi Pusi has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Belajdi Pusi. 3‑2 against Arsenal Tula, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dawid Drachal 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.
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.
The goal that put Arsenal Tula ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Fakel equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Nobody at Fakel is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
5 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fakel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fakel has been clear about where Yury Zhuravlev stands, which is more than many ever get.
Something was said to Dawid Drachal and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Gennady Chernyshov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Fakel have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Maxim Turischev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Fakel 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdula Bagamaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Merabi Uridia’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Fakel needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nobody at Fakel 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.
9 appearances at Kaluga and the goals have stopped going in. Fakel lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fakel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fakel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fakel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darko Todorović 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.
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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fakel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
5‑1, and Merabi Uridia took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Fakel tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Merabi Uridia takes the afternoon — 8.99
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Merabi Uridia provided it, and the 8.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fakel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Fakel and Chelyabinsk, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fakel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
10 combined actions and 6.54. 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gennady Chernyshov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darko Todorović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Partizan have kept their man, and Fakel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 45 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Darko Todorović was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Yurganov 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.
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.
Rodina next, and one man in the Fakel dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Axel Gnapi Dable has written the date down.