Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Korzhenevskiy 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 FCI Tallinn 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 Sander Alamaa is on it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Matvey Kudryavtsev has just signed for FCI Tallinn, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at FCI Tallinn training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Korzhenevskiy 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 FCI Tallinn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 19, and nobody at FCI Tallinn signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
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.
A new face in his position, and Chiquinho Alagoano suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. FCI Tallinn have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Martin Antonov 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.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at FCI Tallinn the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. FCI Tallinn know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Nobody at FCI 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.
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 Aleksander Iljin is on it.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at FCI Tallinn the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Frank Kruglov
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nikita Ainsalu 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FCI Tallinn, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at FCI Tallinn the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kevin Anderson commits to FCI Tallinn for another 1 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
15 new faces, and FCI 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.
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.
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 Aleksander Iljin is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Korzhenevskiy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at FCI Tallinn has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Liliu Pikk 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Erik 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.
FCI Tallinn ran out of time with Sillamae Kalev. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at FCI Tallinn, another week without a signature from Alexey Meschaninov.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Marek Puri arrives from Sillamae Kalev with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at FCI Tallinn would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
SquadQuestions about Karl Marin on the training pitch
6Edition
The FCI Tallinn Chronicle
7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondentUneasy
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$34.0K settles it between the clubs for Artur Kruglov
Sillamae Kalev have accepted the money. What FCI Tallinn do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
FCI Tallinn close the window on a squad of their own making
25 in and 0 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.
14 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.
“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 used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation FCI Tallinn are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Everything agreed with Sillamae Kalev, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
FCI Tallinn had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Tulevik, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A loan enquiry to Sillamae Kalev: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Johannes Lillemets was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nobody at FCI 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.
A new face in his position, and Aleksander Iljin suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. FCI Tallinn have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Ken Kallaste arrives from Sillamae Kalev with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Narva Trans go through and FCI Tallinn go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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 dugout24 Aug 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Marek Sorga to a room that had heard them before.
FCI Tallinn have made the call to Tulevik. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mihkel Ainsalu and FCI Tallinn agree another 3 years.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation FCI Tallinn are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Aleksander Iljin keeps the shirt for now, at FCI Tallinn's convenience rather than his own.
The deal with Nomme Kalju 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aleksander Iljin and FCI Tallinn agree another 4 years.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mihkel 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. Rauno Liivak is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Martin Tamm 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. Frank Pikk is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
FCI Tallinn have made the call to Flora. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad10 Aug 2026
6 new faces, and FCI 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.
FCI Tallinn have gone to Paide 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.
FCI Tallinn have made the call to Sillamae Kalev. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at FCI Tallinn would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Kevin Anderson arrives at FCI Tallinn with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.