Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nourdine Camara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sergei Bolgov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. FC Tallinn were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation FC Tallinn are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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 Alex Dunitš is on it.
Words at FC Tallinn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Tšendei 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.
Kauã Miranda 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Vladislav Tšurilkin 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Tallinn 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
24 new faces, and FC Tallinn 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.
Nourdine Camara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at FC Tallinn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Tšendei 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.
Stefan Tšendei 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Brent Klavan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Stefan Tšendei 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.
24 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
In brief
SquadRauno Igonen is not doing himself any favours
FC Tallinn asked and Narva Trans 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.
Nobody at FC Tallinn 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.
Kauã Miranda 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 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at FC Tallinn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nourdine Camara 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 35 arrived, 23 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Nourdine Camara 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.
FC Tallinn asked and Nomme Kalju 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
Transfer targetsA loan move for Artur Marin is in the works
FC Tallinn asked and Welco 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 Stefan Tšendei was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gustav Kattago 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Tallinn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at FC Tallinn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jasper Reilson 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.
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.
FCI Levadia ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Alex Dunitš, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 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.
Stefan Tšendei 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.
FC Tallinn asked and Tammeka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. FC Tallinn will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Ivan Korzhenevskiy 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nomme Kalju have kept their man, and FC Tallinn 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 Stefan Tšendei was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Karl Ainsalu has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Taijo Ojamaa is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The shirt still fits. Stefan Tšendei is back at FC Tallinn, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. FC Tallinn were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation FC Tallinn are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad3 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and FC Tallinn 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.