A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Muslim Bammatgereev 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 Mikhail Sentyurin 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Kolomna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Anas Raheel, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kolomna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
7.99, 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.
Marked 7.87. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Mikhail Pilipenko 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.
6 goals in one match, Yasson Mandzukas on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Kolomna and Torpedo Vladimir.
A 4‑2 win over Torpedo Vladimir, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Sentyurin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Kirill Matsak 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.
Baltika 2 held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Kolomna answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Arseniy Plotnikov after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Lukjanenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Player ratingsRenat Gagity could not find anything
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kolomna 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mikhail Sentyurin signs something — a contract at Kolomna 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Yasson Mandzukas may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kolomna, another week without a signature from Ejmin Ohanyan.
SquadThe training reports on Ejmin Ohanyan are not good
62Edition
The Kolomna Sentinel
4 Oct 2027
From our football correspondentUneasy
The terraces4 Oct 2027
The mood at Kolomna has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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 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.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Kolomna will try not to make too much of it.
8 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.
“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 Kolomna, and it is not being withdrawn.
9 goals in one match, Anas Raheel on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Kolomna and Yenisey 2.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Kolomna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Sentyurin 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 Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4‑0, and Anas Raheel took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Kolomna tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
A brace, and Anas Raheel takes the afternoon — 8.41
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Anas Raheel provided it, and the 8.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Yanchenko 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Kolomna is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Maksim Samoilov provided it, and the 7.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Kolomna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Kolomna close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 8 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikita Lukjanenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kolomna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with KAMAZ is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
4 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.
Muslim Bammatgereev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rodina have kept their man, and Kolomna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadWords at Kolomna training over how hard people work
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Kolomna people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kolomna asked and Dinamo Bryansk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Sentyurin 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 involved Rauf Novruzov, 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.
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
Transfer targetsA loan move for Rustem Klimanov is in the works
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dinamo Vladivostok waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kolomna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Add another name to the list: Zarya Lugansk have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Grigory Komovnikov. The answer from Kolomna has not changed — yet.
6 goals in one match, Anas Raheel on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Kolomna and Dinamo Vologda.
Kolomna asked and Sibir 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 Vladislav Yanchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Kirill Matsak and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Denis Safronov
BoardroomNobody left the Kolomna dressing room in a hurry
The deal with Dinamo Bryansk 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Kirill Matsak is a Kolomna player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Mikhail Pilipenko 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leningradets have kept their man, and Kolomna go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
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.
“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 Kolomna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kolomna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at KAMAZ is saying, and nobody at Kolomna is enjoying the guessing.
Kolomna asked and Volga said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Sentyurin 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.
Astemir Mambetov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
0‑4 to Zenit 2, 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.
“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 Kolomna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Sevastopol, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Rauf Novruzov 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 Vladislav Yanchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Kolomna people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kolomna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Anas Raheel did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kolomna have done the hard part with Rodina, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo St Petersburg keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Mikhail Pilipenko 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.
Kolomna offered $800.00; Druzhba said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kolomna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kolomna have done the hard part with Dinamo St Petersburg, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Mikhail Pilipenko 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 will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Arseniy Plotnikov to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutDenis Safronov asks for a word with the manager
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kolomna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kvant waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kolomna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Kolomna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with KAMAZ is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
“I 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 Kolomna know it.
6 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Yanchenko 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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 name of Grigory Komovnikov has come up in conversations Kolomna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Kolomna 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislav Yanchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Yasson Mandzukas 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.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kolomna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Kolomna can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kolomna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
$800.00 on the table at Druzhba. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$800.00 was the most the club would pay and Druzhba were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.
Position 13 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kolomna can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kolomna have done the hard part with Veles, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Kolomna offered $2.0K; Strogino said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Sentyurin 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 Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kolomna can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Druzhba 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. KAMAZ have kept their man, and Kolomna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Yanchenko 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.
Rauf Novruzov 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 Maksim Samoilov signs something — a contract at Kolomna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Sentyurin 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.
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 German Kazakov is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yaroslav Kolesnichenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kolomna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mikhail Pilipenko 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.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Mikhail Sentyurin was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kolomna, another week without a signature from Andrey Kabaev.
In brief
The dugoutDenis Safronov asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kolomna can pretend not to have heard.
Mikhail Pilipenko 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 Nikita Lukjanenko 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 Arseny Yerastov is on it.
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Kanaev 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.
Astemir Mambetov 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maksim Samoilov signs something — a contract at Kolomna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Gusarov is on it.
The mood at Kolomna has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Kanaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kolomna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Kolomna will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kolomna can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kolomna 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 Kolomna 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.
Nobody at Kolomna 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.
In brief
The dugoutAndrey Kabaev asks for a word with the manager
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Kolomna can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Kolomna, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Kolomna 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 Arseny Yerastov is on it.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kolomna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kolomna can pretend not to have heard.
Mikhail Kanaev 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maksim Samoilov signs something — a contract at Kolomna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Gusarov is on it.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Mikhail Pilipenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Yanchenko 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Denis Safronov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mikhail Sentyurin signs something — a contract at Kolomna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Mikhail Kanaev’s negotiating for him
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kolomna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kolomna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mikhail Pilipenko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Kanaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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 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.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Kanaev 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 Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Mikhail Kanaev's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Nobody at Kolomna 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Dmitriy Rogov
The dugoutRauf Novruzov asks for a word with the manager
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kolomna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kolomna can pretend not to have heard.
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 Dmitry Gusarov is on it.
The mood at Kolomna has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kolomna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Kanaev 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.
2 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrey Kabaev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mikhail Sentyurin signs something — a contract at Kolomna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikita Lukjanenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kolomna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Druzhba have kept their man, and Kolomna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Sentyurin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
2 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Kolomna no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nikita Lukjanenko is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Arseniy Plotnikov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kolomna asked and Luki-Energiya said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Yanchenko 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.
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kolomna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed 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 Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kolomna asked and Volga said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ufa is saying, and nobody at Kolomna is enjoying the guessing.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kolomna have done the hard part with Neftyanik, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Bryansk have kept their man, and Kolomna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Sentyurin 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.
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kolomna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kolomna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Everything agreed with Dinamo Bryansk, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Amkar wanted more than $1.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Yanchenko 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.
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kolomna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Kolomna can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Kolomna, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kolomna have done the hard part with Spartak Kostroma, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Luki-Energiya have kept their man, and Kolomna go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mikhail Pilipenko has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kolomna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A mark of 10.00 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A brace, and Anas Raheel takes the afternoon — 8.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Anas Raheel provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The deal with Rostov 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
116 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kolomna 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 Kolomna can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yaroslav Sosnikhin did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Mikhail Kanaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Sentyurin 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.
123 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kolomna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikita Lukjanenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kolomna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Kanaev 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 Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Arseniy Plotnikov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
130 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kolomna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Mikhail Pilipenko 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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 6.96, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislav Yanchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The words a physio says slowly. 137 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Arseniy Plotnikov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Yanchenko 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 Kolomna, and 2 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
14 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
0‑4 against Dinamo Vologda, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Kanaev 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.
Astemir Mambetov 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 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.
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kolomna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Kanaev 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 door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Arseniy Plotnikov to a room that had heard them before.
12 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolomna 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 Mikhail Sentyurin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Kolomna game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Shakhter Donetsk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
11 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Kolomna can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mikhail Pilipenko provided it, and the 8.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Kolomna know it.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Kolomna and Kosmos in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Kanaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Rauf Novruzov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
10 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
At 18 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.
Mikhail Kanaev 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 Vladislav Yanchenko 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 Kolomna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mikhail Pilipenko 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Yanchenko is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 7.18 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Kolomna had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Arseniy Plotnikov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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 Arseny Yerastov is on it.
Mikhail Pilipenko 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Kolomna told Yaroslav Sosnikhin something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dmitry Khraptsov has his answer from Kolomna; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Kolomna will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A mark of 8.23 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Kanaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Yasson Mandzukas 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.
“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 Kolomna, and 5 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
1‑6 to Saturn, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
7 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Kolomna and Saturn in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Kolomna, and 2 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1‑7 to Spartak Moscow 2, 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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kolomna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Kolomna and Spartak Moscow 2, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Chertanovo the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Kolomna will enjoy reviewing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
At 19 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.
Mikhail Kanaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Sentyurin 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 squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Danila Molodnyakov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Kolomna needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nikita Lukjanenko is on it.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
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.
Out, 0‑6 to Dinamo Makhachkala, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
0‑3 to Zenit 2, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
It finished 0-6. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
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.
At 18 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.
Mikhail Pilipenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match30 Sep 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Kolomna and Dinamo Makhachkala in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Kanaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Beaten 6 times, with 5 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikita Lukjanenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kolomna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mikhail Pilipenko 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 clock did what SKA Khabarovsk would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and Kolomna 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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Glyz 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.
In brief
The dugoutArseny Yerastov has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Kolomna asked and Dinamo Vladivostok said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Yanchenko 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 Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
The dugoutGerman Kazakov has become a man the manager trusts
SKA Khabarovsk have accepted the money. What Kolomna do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 24 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Kolomna asked and Luki-Energiya 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 Mikhail Kanaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Semyon Lukyanov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vladlen Yevseyev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Kolomna and Amkar have settled on $27.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Kanaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Kolomna will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Vladivostok: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Ilja Romaschuk is 19, and Kolomna have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Kolomna people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Rubin Yalta have accepted the money. What Kolomna do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Everything agreed with Nizhniy Novgorod, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Kolomna asked and Yenisey said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Kolomna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Yanchenko 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Kolomna 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.
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.
1‑4 to Dinamo Vologda, 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.
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
1 for Arseny Yerastov, 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.
Kolomna offered $44.0K; Shinnik said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The name of Alexandr Peshkov has come up in conversations Kolomna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Kolomna asked and Astrakhan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
SquadMikhail Kanaev falls out with a teammate over standards
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolomna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kolomna asked and Luki-Energiya 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.
Mikhail Pilipenko 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.
$33.0K was the most the club would pay and Khimik were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.
Kolomna asked and Volgar 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Prokhor Frolov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Evgeni Nikolaev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yaroslav Kolesnichenko provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
$28.0K on the table at Dinamo St Petersburg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Kolomna have gone to Khimik with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Danil Spodarets has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Kolomna have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
Rauf Novruzov 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.