From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saminu Abdullahi
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match11 Sep 2038
Nowhere to hide for KAMAZ
1‑9 against Zenit, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market13 Sep 2038
“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 The request is on a desk at KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match13 Sep 2038
KAMAZ sink to position 14
7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market13 Sep 2038
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAMAZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match11 Sep 2038
The wait goes on for KAMAZ
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.
Squad13 Sep 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match11 Sep 2038
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about KAMAZ and Zenit in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad13 Sep 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Iacovello 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Sep 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saminu Abdullahi
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings6 Sep 2038
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 10.00, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market6 Sep 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KAMAZ is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match4 Sep 2038
The wait goes on for KAMAZ
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad6 Sep 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Okazie Ebenezer 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.
Match4 Sep 2038
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about KAMAZ and Dinamo Makhachkala in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad6 Sep 2038
Mattia Iacovello falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad6 Sep 2038
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings6 Sep 2038
A performance of 8.41 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Aug 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saminu Abdullahi
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Aug 2038
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market30 Aug 2038
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match28 Aug 2038
The wait goes on for KAMAZ
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.
Squad30 Aug 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Boardroom30 Aug 2038
KAMAZ counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at KAMAZ now.
Squad30 Aug 2038
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Sergeev, and the manager let it.
Player ratings30 Aug 2038
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings30 Aug 2038
10 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Aug 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saminu Abdullahi
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces23 Aug 2038
The mood at KAMAZ 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.
Market23 Aug 2038
Pablo Lago hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Aug 2038
Matvey Zaitsev: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAMAZ have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market23 Aug 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KAMAZ is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Aug 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2038
Mattia Iacovello falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings23 Aug 2038
Ninety minutes of Mauro Ibarra at his very best
Marked 8.45. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at KAMAZ.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Aug 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saminu Abdullahi
123 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Aug 2038
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Market16 Aug 2038
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kirill Stepanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAMAZ the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Aug 2038
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad16 Aug 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Squad16 Aug 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Iacovello 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.
Player ratings16 Aug 2038
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings16 Aug 2038
Alexandr Pomalyuk was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match14 Aug 2038
KAMAZ and Rotor take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Aug 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saminu Abdullahi
130 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Aug 2038
A hiding for KAMAZ
Beaten 0‑3 by Torpedo Moscow, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market9 Aug 2038
“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.
Market9 Aug 2038
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAMAZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Aug 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Saminu Abdullahi and KAMAZ agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom9 Aug 2038
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Okazie Ebenezer has agreed terms with Rostov for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad9 Aug 2038
Mauro Ibarra in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Kondakov 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.
Boardroom9 Aug 2038
Nobody left the KAMAZ dressing room in a hurry
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Aug 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saminu Abdullahi
137 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom2 Aug 2038
Ivan Gagarin has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at KAMAZ can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom2 Aug 2038
The KAMAZ board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Player ratings2 Aug 2038
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.47, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad2 Aug 2038
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market2 Aug 2038
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Aug 2038
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Saminu Abdullahi commits to KAMAZ for another 2 years.
Squad2 Aug 2038
Matvey Zaitsev is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Boardroom2 Aug 2038
KAMAZ counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at KAMAZ now.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Jul 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Saminu Abdullahi
144 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces26 Jul 2038
The mood at KAMAZ 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.
Match24 Jul 2038
The wait goes on for KAMAZ
8 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.
Player ratings26 Jul 2038
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.86, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market26 Jul 2038
“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.
Squad26 Jul 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rinat Shakerov and KAMAZ agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad26 Jul 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Jul 2038
Baltika left with the points after a 3‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match24 Jul 2038
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about KAMAZ and Baltika in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2038
Saminu Abdullahi damages knee ligaments — 152 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 152 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.
Market19 Jul 2038
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Match17 Jul 2038
No end in sight to KAMAZ's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at KAMAZ has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Jul 2038
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings19 Jul 2038
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.30 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market19 Jul 2038
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAMAZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Mattia Iacovello 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.
Boardroom19 Jul 2038
Graduation day at KAMAZ
7 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.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauro Ibarra is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jul 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Okazie Ebenezer
118 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Jul 2038
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jul 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saminu Abdullahi 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.
Squad12 Jul 2038
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.
Market12 Jul 2038
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KAMAZ know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Jul 2038
Okazie Ebenezer damages knee ligaments — 125 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 125 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.
Market5 Jul 2038
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jul 2038
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Matvey Zaitsev is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Jul 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saminu Abdullahi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Boardroom5 Jul 2038
Intake day at the KAMAZ academy
6 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces28 Jun 2038
Anger at KAMAZ spills outside the ground
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.
Market28 Jun 2038
“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.
Market28 Jun 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KAMAZ is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Jun 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauro Ibarra 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.
Squad28 Jun 2038
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Okazie Ebenezer trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom21 Jun 2038
The silence upstairs is getting loud at KAMAZ
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match21 Jun 2038
KAMAZ sink to position 14
23 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market21 Jun 2038
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market21 Jun 2038
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAMAZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom21 Jun 2038
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Fredrik Henriksen has agreed terms with Pari Nizhniy Novgorod for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad21 Jun 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saminu Abdullahi 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.
Market21 Jun 2038
Daniil Chizhov is 20, and KAMAZ 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.
Squad21 Jun 2038
Mattia Iacovello has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at KAMAZ 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.
Market21 Jun 2038
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mauro Ibarra may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Jun 2038
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Jun 2038
Only the photograph left for Dilan Donaire
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dilan Donaire will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAMAZ the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 Jun 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Squad14 Jun 2038
Saminu Abdullahi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad14 Jun 2038
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.
Market14 Jun 2038
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what KAMAZ could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Jun 2038
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Jun 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2038
Yaroslav Mylokost falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad7 Jun 2038
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.
Boardroom7 Jun 2038
The numbers do not look good at KAMAZ
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.
Market7 Jun 2038
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs KAMAZ money.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces31 May 2038
Anger at KAMAZ spills outside the ground
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.
Market31 May 2038
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 May 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KAMAZ is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 May 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Mauro Ibarra 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.
Squad31 May 2038
Saminu Abdullahi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad31 May 2038
Dilan Donaire has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at KAMAZ 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom24 May 2038
The scrutiny sharpens at KAMAZ
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at KAMAZ is running low.
Match24 May 2038
KAMAZ are in real trouble now
Position 14, 23 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market24 May 2038
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 May 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2038
Viacheslav Afyan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad24 May 2038
Mattia Iacovello has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at KAMAZ 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 May 2038
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market17 May 2038
Only the photograph left for Dilan Donaire
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dilan Donaire will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAMAZ the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 May 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Squad17 May 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauro Ibarra 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.
Squad17 May 2038
The medical room confirms 42 days on the sidelines for Ruslan Gagarin, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad17 May 2038
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 May 2038
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 May 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saminu Abdullahi 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.
Squad10 May 2038
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.
Boardroom10 May 2038
The numbers do not look good at KAMAZ
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.
Squad10 May 2038
Okazie Ebenezer asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces3 May 2038
Anger at KAMAZ spills outside the ground
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.
Boardroom3 May 2038
Ivan Gagarin has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at KAMAZ can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market3 May 2038
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom3 May 2038
The KAMAZ board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market3 May 2038
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAMAZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom3 May 2038
The KAMAZ board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad3 May 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viacheslav Afyan 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.
Squad3 May 2038
Nikita Massalyga loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Nikita Massalyga's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom26 Apr 2038
Pressure builds in the KAMAZ boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match26 Apr 2038
Every point is an argument now for KAMAZ
Position 14 and 23 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.
Market26 Apr 2038
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Apr 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2038
Mauro Ibarra falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad26 Apr 2038
Mattia Iacovello has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at KAMAZ 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Apr 2038
Only the photograph left for Dilan Donaire
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dilan Donaire will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAMAZ the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market19 Apr 2038
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Apr 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viacheslav Afyan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad19 Apr 2038
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.
Squad19 Apr 2038
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Guillermo Guzmán trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Apr 2038
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2038
Mauro Ibarra in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saminu Abdullahi 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.
Squad12 Apr 2038
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.
Squad12 Apr 2038
Maxim Sergeev asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Boardroom12 Apr 2038
The numbers do not look good at KAMAZ
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market5 Apr 2038
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Market5 Apr 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KAMAZ is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Apr 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Squad5 Apr 2038
Saminu Abdullahi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad5 Apr 2038
Dilan Donaire has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at KAMAZ 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.
Squad5 Apr 2038
Maxim Sergeev knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maxim Sergeev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom29 Mar 2038
The scrutiny sharpens at KAMAZ
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at KAMAZ is running low.
Match29 Mar 2038
KAMAZ are in real trouble now
Position 14, 23 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market29 Mar 2038
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Mar 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2038
Viacheslav Afyan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad29 Mar 2038
Mattia Iacovello has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at KAMAZ 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 Mar 2038
Only the photograph left for Dilan Donaire
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dilan Donaire will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAMAZ the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market22 Mar 2038
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viacheslav Afyan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad22 Mar 2038
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.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Mattia Iacovello asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Mar 2038
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Mar 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saminu Abdullahi 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.
Boardroom15 Mar 2038
The numbers do not look good at KAMAZ
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.
Squad15 Mar 2038
“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 KAMAZ know it.
Squad15 Mar 2038
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Mar 2038
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Market8 Mar 2038
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yaroslav Mylokost will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAMAZ the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Mar 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad8 Mar 2038
Saminu Abdullahi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad8 Mar 2038
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad8 Mar 2038
“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 KAMAZ know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 Mar 2038
Pressure builds in the KAMAZ boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match1 Mar 2038
KAMAZ are in real trouble now
Position 14, 23 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market1 Mar 2038
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Mar 2038
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad1 Mar 2038
“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 KAMAZ know it.
Squad1 Mar 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 Feb 2038
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Market22 Feb 2038
Dilan Donaire has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAMAZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Feb 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Mattia Iacovello 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.
Squad22 Feb 2038
Saminu Abdullahi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad22 Feb 2038
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad22 Feb 2038
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Feb 2038
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Feb 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saminu Abdullahi 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.
Boardroom15 Feb 2038
The numbers do not look good at KAMAZ
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.
Squad15 Feb 2038
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sigurður Gunnar Jónsson, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Feb 2038
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Feb 2038
Ivan Gagarin has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at KAMAZ can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom8 Feb 2038
The KAMAZ board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market8 Feb 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KAMAZ is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market8 Feb 2038
Pablo Lago hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Match6 Feb 2038
The wait goes on for KAMAZ
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.
Boardroom8 Feb 2038
The KAMAZ board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad8 Feb 2038
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Guillermo Guzmán and KAMAZ agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Feb 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2038
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Simone Lottici Tessadri has just signed for KAMAZ, and for once the answer mattered.
In brief
-
Market
Arsenal Tula are about to pick up the phone
-
Squad
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
-
Match
KAMAZ leaking at the back
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 Feb 2038
Pressure builds in the KAMAZ boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match1 Feb 2038
KAMAZ are in real trouble now
Position 14, 23 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad1 Feb 2038
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market1 Feb 2038
“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.
Match30 Jan 2038
5 matches without a win for KAMAZ
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around KAMAZ are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 Feb 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2038
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saminu Abdullahi 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.
Match30 Jan 2038
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings1 Feb 2038
Viacheslav Afyan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.76. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Jan 2038
“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.
Squad25 Jan 2038
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match23 Jan 2038
4 matches without a win for KAMAZ
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around KAMAZ are no longer polite ones.
Squad25 Jan 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2038
Saminu Abdullahi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match23 Jan 2038
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad25 Jan 2038
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings25 Jan 2038
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market25 Jan 2038
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KAMAZ know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Jan 2038
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2038
Viacheslav Afyan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom18 Jan 2038
The numbers do not look good at KAMAZ
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.
Squad18 Jan 2038
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikita Massalyga, and the manager let it.
Match16 Jan 2038
Torpedo Moscow left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings18 Jan 2038
Viacheslav Afyan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings18 Jan 2038
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Jan 2038
The manager has not finished forgetting Yaroslav Mylokost's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jan 2038
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market11 Jan 2038
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAMAZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market11 Jan 2038
Pablo Lago hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom11 Jan 2038
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Player ratings11 Jan 2038
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Mattia Iacovello 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.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Saminu Abdullahi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad11 Jan 2038
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Sergeev, and the manager let it.
Match9 Jan 2038
A bad afternoon for KAMAZ against Rostov
0‑1 to Rostov, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2038
Chastening afternoon for KAMAZ
A 0‑4 beating by Zenit was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad4 Jan 2038
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad4 Jan 2038
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market4 Jan 2038
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Match2 Jan 2038
KAMAZ are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad4 Jan 2038
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Saminu Abdullahi and KAMAZ agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Jan 2038
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Okazie Ebenezer 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2038
Doors closed at KAMAZ
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings4 Jan 2038
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Dec 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Dec 2037
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match26 Dec 2037
KAMAZ leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad28 Dec 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viacheslav Afyan 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.
Match26 Dec 2037
Dinamo Makhachkala made KAMAZ work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings28 Dec 2037
A performance of 9.40 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings28 Dec 2037
Youssef Erraoui was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings28 Dec 2037
Alexandr Pomalyuk was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Dec 2037
13 matches without a win for KAMAZ
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around KAMAZ are no longer polite ones.
Market21 Dec 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Dec 2037
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAMAZ have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad21 Dec 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Dec 2037
KAMAZ leaking at the back
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad21 Dec 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saminu Abdullahi 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.
Boardroom21 Dec 2037
The numbers do not look good at KAMAZ
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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2037
Ninety minutes of Viacheslav Afyan at his very best
Marked 9.09. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at KAMAZ.
Match19 Dec 2037
A bad afternoon for KAMAZ against Akron
1‑2 to Akron, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Dec 2037
No end in sight to KAMAZ's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at KAMAZ has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 Dec 2037
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings14 Dec 2037
A brace, and Alexandr Pomalyuk takes the afternoon — 8.05
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexandr Pomalyuk provided it, and the 8.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market14 Dec 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Dec 2037
Artem Chudakov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAMAZ have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Dec 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Squad14 Dec 2037
Saminu Abdullahi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings14 Dec 2037
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Dec 2037
KAMAZ are shipping goals every week
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Dec 2037
The wait goes on for KAMAZ
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.
Match5 Dec 2037
Chastening afternoon for KAMAZ
A 1‑4 beating by Krylya Sovetov was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad7 Dec 2037
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market7 Dec 2037
“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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2037
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Dec 2037
“The easiest signature of my career.” Maxim Sergeev and KAMAZ agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2037
Mauro Ibarra in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2037
Viacheslav Afyan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom7 Dec 2037
Nobody left the KAMAZ dressing room in a hurry
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Nov 2037
10 matches without a win for KAMAZ
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around KAMAZ are no longer polite ones.
Market30 Nov 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces30 Nov 2037
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad30 Nov 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Match28 Nov 2037
2‑3 to Spartak Moscow, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad30 Nov 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauro Ibarra 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.
Squad30 Nov 2037
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings30 Nov 2037
Ninety minutes of Dilan Donaire at his very best
Marked 8.54. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at KAMAZ.
Player ratings30 Nov 2037
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Nov 2037
No end in sight to KAMAZ's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at KAMAZ has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad23 Nov 2037
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match18 Nov 2037
KAMAZ bow out of the cup
Pari Nizhniy Novgorod go through and KAMAZ go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match21 Nov 2037
KAMAZ throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Arsenal Tula the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that KAMAZ will enjoy reviewing.
Squad23 Nov 2037
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market23 Nov 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings23 Nov 2037
25 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2037
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Nov 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Dmitry Chamzhaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
-
Squad
Viacheslav Afyan falls out with a teammate over standards
-
Boardroom
The numbers do not look good at KAMAZ
-
Match
Whatever happens, KAMAZ do not lose
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” KAMAZ may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match14 Nov 2037
No end in sight to KAMAZ's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at KAMAZ has to find a result from somewhere.
Market16 Nov 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Match14 Nov 2037
KAMAZ leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad16 Nov 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Mauro Ibarra 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.
Squad16 Nov 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viacheslav Afyan 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2037
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.19, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings16 Nov 2037
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings16 Nov 2037
Marked 8.65 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Nov 2037
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.06, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market9 Nov 2037
Pablo Lago hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Match7 Nov 2037
No end in sight to KAMAZ's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at KAMAZ has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad9 Nov 2037
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.
Squad9 Nov 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Nov 2037
KAMAZ leaking at the back
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad9 Nov 2037
Mauro Ibarra falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad9 Nov 2037
The manager makes an example of Mauro Ibarra
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market9 Nov 2037
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Oct 2037
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Mattia Iacovello will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at KAMAZ escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Market2 Nov 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings2 Nov 2037
A brace, and Mattia Iacovello takes the afternoon — 8.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mattia Iacovello provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad2 Nov 2037
Ivan Alferov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAMAZ have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match31 Oct 2037
The wait goes on for KAMAZ
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Boardroom2 Nov 2037
The KAMAZ board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad2 Nov 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Squad2 Nov 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viacheslav Afyan 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.
Match31 Oct 2037
No clean sheets in sight for KAMAZ
4 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Oct 2037
KAMAZ throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Pari Nizhniy Novgorod the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that KAMAZ will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings26 Oct 2037
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.05, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market26 Oct 2037
“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.
Boardroom26 Oct 2037
KAMAZ counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at KAMAZ now.
Match24 Oct 2037
4 matches without a win for KAMAZ
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around KAMAZ are no longer polite ones.
Squad26 Oct 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Squad26 Oct 2037
Saminu Abdullahi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad26 Oct 2037
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings26 Oct 2037
Youssef Erraoui was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings19 Oct 2037
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.17, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad19 Oct 2037
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAMAZ have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Oct 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Oct 2037
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 10 goals between KAMAZ and CSKA Moscow, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad19 Oct 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saminu Abdullahi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad19 Oct 2037
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings19 Oct 2037
A performance of 8.49 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom19 Oct 2037
104% of the income goes out in wages at KAMAZ
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Oct 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viacheslav Afyan 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.
Match10 Oct 2037
Lokomotiv Moscow left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings12 Oct 2037
Youssef Erraoui was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.89. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad12 Oct 2037
The manager makes an example of Antonio Jakir
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings12 Oct 2037
Marked 8.37 — 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.
Squad12 Oct 2037
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. KAMAZ told Viacheslav Afyan something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The terraces12 Oct 2037
Everybody has an opinion about Mauro Ibarra
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Sep 2037
KAMAZ through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Chertanovo, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings5 Oct 2037
Age has not caught Maxim Sergeev yet — 9.31
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.31 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad5 Oct 2037
476 appearances across 12 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and KAMAZ know what they have.
Player ratings5 Oct 2037
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2037
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dmitry Chamzhaev and KAMAZ agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Oct 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Dmitry Chamzhaev 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.
Squad5 Oct 2037
Viacheslav Afyan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings5 Oct 2037
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.84, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match3 Oct 2037
A 1‑1 draw with Torpedo Moscow leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2037
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Boardroom28 Sep 2037
KAMAZ counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at KAMAZ now.
Squad28 Sep 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauro Ibarra 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.
Match26 Sep 2037
KAMAZ come up short against Rostov
Rostov left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings28 Sep 2037
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2037
The manager makes an example of Mauro Ibarra
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings28 Sep 2037
Shots: 12, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Player ratings28 Sep 2037
Marked 5.72, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2037
KAMAZ taken apart
0‑5 to Zenit, 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.
The terraces21 Sep 2037
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market21 Sep 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Sep 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2037
Viacheslav Afyan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad21 Sep 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikita Massalyga, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2037
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom21 Sep 2037
Wages eat 115% of everything KAMAZ earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Boardroom21 Sep 2037
Inquest at KAMAZ
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2037
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2037
A muscle injury sidelines Saminu Abdullahi for 17 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. KAMAZ will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viacheslav Afyan 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
Ninety minutes of Youssef Erraoui at his very best
Marked 8.90. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at KAMAZ.
Squad14 Sep 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Benjamin Keller, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
A performance of 8.51 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2037
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.
Squad7 Sep 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Sep 2037
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2037
Benjamin Keller falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings7 Sep 2037
A performance of 8.65 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match5 Sep 2037
KAMAZ get the job done against Akron
A 1‑0 win over Akron, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad7 Sep 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nikita Shulkin commits to KAMAZ for another 2 years.
Player ratings7 Sep 2037
Shots: 12. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Player ratings7 Sep 2037
14 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom31 Aug 2037
KAMAZ counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at KAMAZ now.
Squad31 Aug 2037
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.
Squad31 Aug 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Lago 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.
Match29 Aug 2037
Dinamo Moscow left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings31 Aug 2037
Youssef Erraoui was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.84. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2037
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2037
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad24 Aug 2037
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market24 Aug 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2037
Pablo Lago in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2037
Mattia Iacovello falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match22 Aug 2037
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom24 Aug 2037
Wages eat 125% of everything KAMAZ earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The terraces24 Aug 2037
The spotlight tightens on Mauro Ibarra
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” KAMAZ may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 Aug 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Pablo Lago was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings17 Aug 2037
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match15 Aug 2037
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about KAMAZ and Spartak Moscow in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad17 Aug 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Keller 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.
Squad17 Aug 2037
The manager makes an example of Antonio Jakir
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings17 Aug 2037
Marked 8.70 — 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2037
Marked 8.28 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Aug 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad10 Aug 2037
Mauro Ibarra in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2037
Pablo Lago falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match8 Aug 2037
A 2‑1 win over Arsenal Tula, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad10 Aug 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Sergeev, and the manager let it.
Player ratings10 Aug 2037
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.39, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings10 Aug 2037
Ninety minutes of Kirill Stepanov at his very best
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at KAMAZ.
Boardroom10 Aug 2037
The KAMAZ debt reaches $30.5M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Player ratings10 Aug 2037
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings3 Aug 2037
A brace, and Kirill Stepanov takes the afternoon — 8.28
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kirill Stepanov provided it, and the 8.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom3 Aug 2037
KAMAZ counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at KAMAZ now.
Boardroom3 Aug 2037
The KAMAZ board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Match1 Aug 2037
Baltika made KAMAZ work for it, but the scoreboard read 5‑4 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings3 Aug 2037
Mattia Iacovello was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match1 Aug 2037
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about KAMAZ and Baltika in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Lago 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2037
A performance of 9.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Jul 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 16 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad27 Jul 2037
A fracture rules Artem Chudakov out for 17 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market27 Jul 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad27 Jul 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Benjamin Keller falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match25 Jul 2037
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom27 Jul 2037
Wages eat 89% of everything KAMAZ earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market27 Jul 2037
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. KAMAZ know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings27 Jul 2037
Shots: 8, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Jul 2037
A fracture rules Artem Chudakov out for 24 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad20 Jul 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Boardroom20 Jul 2037
10 academy players handed senior numbers at KAMAZ
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad20 Jul 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Lago 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.
Player ratings20 Jul 2037
Marked 9.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at KAMAZ.
Match18 Jul 2037
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kirill Stepanov. 2‑1 against Orenburg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings20 Jul 2037
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market20 Jul 2037
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Artyom Belousov 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.
Market20 Jul 2037
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Prokhor Zhdanov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Jul 2037
A fracture rules Artem Chudakov out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market13 Jul 2037
Pablo Lago wants European nights
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad13 Jul 2037
Pablo Lago in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Jul 2037
Mattia Iacovello falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad13 Jul 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Okazie Ebenezer, and the manager let it.
Boardroom13 Jul 2037
No signings allowed at KAMAZ
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Jul 2037
A fracture rules Artem Chudakov out for 38 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market6 Jul 2037
“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.
Squad6 Jul 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Guillermo Guzmán commits to KAMAZ for another 2 years.
Squad6 Jul 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Pablo Lago 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.
Boardroom6 Jul 2037
The owner puts $454.7K into KAMAZ
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad6 Jul 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Keller is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Jun 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom29 Jun 2037
The silence upstairs is getting loud at KAMAZ
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market29 Jun 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Market29 Jun 2037
Sibir come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and KAMAZ did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad29 Jun 2037
Mauro Ibarra in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Jun 2037
Mattia Iacovello falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jun 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Martin Selnaes
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad22 Jun 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom22 Jun 2037
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad22 Jun 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jun 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Iacovello 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.
Market22 Jun 2037
The name of Saminu Abdullahi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. KAMAZ say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Jun 2037
Martin Selnaes damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Squad15 Jun 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market15 Jun 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Jun 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Jun 2037
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and KAMAZ now know that too.
Market15 Jun 2037
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Okazie Ebenezer has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at KAMAZ.
Boardroom15 Jun 2037
No signings allowed at KAMAZ
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Market15 Jun 2037
Add another name to the list: KDV Tomsk have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alexandr Guryev. The answer from KAMAZ has not changed — yet.
Boardroom15 Jun 2037
The KAMAZ debt reaches $32.7M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom8 Jun 2037
Silverware for KAMAZ
They will talk about this season in this town for a long time. The trophy comes home with the squad, and the route is already agreed.
Boardroom8 Jun 2037
KAMAZ are going up
Promotion, confirmed and mathematical, and a town that will not sleep much tonight. Whatever else this season had in it, it ends a division higher than it began.
Squad8 Jun 2037
Martin Selnaes damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Match8 Jun 2037
KAMAZ refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 64 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market8 Jun 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Jun 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad8 Jun 2037
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. KAMAZ will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad8 Jun 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Saminu Abdullahi commits to KAMAZ for another 2 years.
Boardroom8 Jun 2037
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom1 Jun 2037
KAMAZ have won it
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Boardroom1 Jun 2037
Promotion for KAMAZ
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
Squad1 Jun 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Martin Selnaes
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad1 Jun 2037
A fracture rules Artem Chudakov out for 75 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Jun 2037
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriel Florentin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAMAZ the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom1 Jun 2037
The silence upstairs is getting loud at KAMAZ
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market1 Jun 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Jun 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jun 2037
Mattia Iacovello falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 May 2037
A fracture rules Artem Chudakov out for 82 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad25 May 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Squad25 May 2037
Okazie Ebenezer wants to finish where he started
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and KAMAZ now know that too.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 May 2037
Guillermo Guzmán damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Squad18 May 2037
A fracture rules Artem Chudakov out for 89 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market18 May 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 May 2037
Guillermo Guzmán damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Match11 May 2037
KAMAZ are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 64 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad11 May 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 May 2037
Dilan Donaire hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 May 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Squad11 May 2037
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; KAMAZ are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 May 2037
Guillermo Guzmán damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Squad4 May 2037
A fracture rules Artem Chudakov out for 105 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad4 May 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” KAMAZ may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market4 May 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom4 May 2037
The scrutiny sharpens at KAMAZ
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at KAMAZ is running low.
Boardroom4 May 2037
An order from above at KAMAZ: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Squad4 May 2037
“The easiest signature of my career.” Maxim Sergeev and KAMAZ agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom4 May 2037
$856.4K of the owner's money at KAMAZ
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Boardroom4 May 2037
Wages eat 137% of everything KAMAZ earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Apr 2037
A fracture rules Artem Chudakov out for 112 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market27 Apr 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad27 Apr 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” KAMAZ may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Apr 2037
Artem Chudakov breaks a bone — 120 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 120 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market20 Apr 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Apr 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” KAMAZ may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad20 Apr 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Mattia Iacovello falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom20 Apr 2037
The KAMAZ debt reaches $34.7M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 Apr 2037
KAMAZ are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 64 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Artem Chudakov breaks a bone — 127 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 127 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market13 Apr 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Saminu Abdullahi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom13 Apr 2037
KAMAZ cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Saminu Abdullahi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at KAMAZ 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.
Market13 Apr 2037
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dmitry Chamzhaev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market13 Apr 2037
The clock does Gabriel Florentin’s negotiating for him
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee KAMAZ could ask drops and the wages Gabriel Florentin can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Apr 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad6 Apr 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Apr 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saminu Abdullahi 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.
Boardroom6 Apr 2037
$919.0K of the owner's money at KAMAZ
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad6 Apr 2037
“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 KAMAZ know it.
Boardroom6 Apr 2037
172% of the income goes out in wages at KAMAZ
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Mar 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” KAMAZ may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Mar 2037
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAMAZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Mar 2037
At 21, Aleksei Arsenyev is already the best thing here
An average of 7.34 in a first team he is several years too young for. KAMAZ have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Mar 2037
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” KAMAZ have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Mar 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Mar 2037
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saminu Abdullahi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Mar 2037
KAMAZ refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 64 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market16 Mar 2037
Dilan Donaire hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Aziz Gaziev 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.
Squad16 Mar 2037
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; KAMAZ are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Saminu Abdullahi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad16 Mar 2037
The manager makes an example of Aziz Gaziev
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom16 Mar 2037
KAMAZ cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Market16 Mar 2037
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dmitry Chamzhaev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market16 Mar 2037
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what KAMAZ could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Mar 2037
A season average of 7.72 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market9 Mar 2037
“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.
Squad9 Mar 2037
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad9 Mar 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Dmitry Chamzhaev commits to KAMAZ for another 2 years.
Squad9 Mar 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom9 Mar 2037
196% of the income goes out in wages at KAMAZ
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.
Player ratings9 Mar 2037
Marked 8.78 — 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.
Match7 Mar 2037
KAMAZ and Rotor take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings9 Mar 2037
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Mar 2037
Maxim Sergeev breaks a bone — 15 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market2 Mar 2037
“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.
Squad2 Mar 2037
A season average of 7.68 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market2 Mar 2037
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAMAZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad2 Mar 2037
At 21, Aleksei Arsenyev is already the best thing here
An average of 7.35 in a first team he is several years too young for. KAMAZ have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad2 Mar 2037
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dmitry Chamzhaev and KAMAZ agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings2 Mar 2037
22 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Boardroom2 Mar 2037
The owner puts $906.1K into KAMAZ
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Player ratings2 Mar 2037
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Feb 2037
Maxim Sergeev breaks a bone — 22 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Defences have started doubling up on Mattia Iacovello
18 goals and a season average of 7.94 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match21 Feb 2037
No mercy from KAMAZ
Fakel will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. KAMAZ were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market23 Feb 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Feb 2037
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings23 Feb 2037
Aleksei Arsenyev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.40
A mark of 8.40 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.
Player ratings23 Feb 2037
Dmitry Chamzhaev, 35, rolls back the years — 8.29
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.29 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market23 Feb 2037
Salyut come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and KAMAZ did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad23 Feb 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
-
Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Mattia Iacovello at his very best
-
Player ratings
Mauro Ibarra was on a different afternoon to everybody else
-
Boardroom
The KAMAZ debt reaches $35.3M
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Feb 2037
Maxim Sergeev breaks a bone — 31 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match16 Feb 2037
KAMAZ up to position 1
59 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match14 Feb 2037
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Rubin, and it could have been more.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Defences have started doubling up on Mattia Iacovello
17 goals and a season average of 7.91 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market16 Feb 2037
“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.
Player ratings16 Feb 2037
Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings16 Feb 2037
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.38, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Feb 2037
A fracture rules Maxim Sergeev out for 38 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market9 Feb 2037
“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.
Squad9 Feb 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad9 Feb 2037
Defences have started doubling up on Youssef Erraoui
14 goals and a season average of 7.63 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad9 Feb 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” KAMAZ may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match7 Feb 2037
Youssef Erraoui scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Sokol, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Boardroom9 Feb 2037
Wages eat 206% of everything KAMAZ earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings9 Feb 2037
Youssef Erraoui was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.77. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings9 Feb 2037
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Feb 2037
A fracture rules Maxim Sergeev out for 45 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom2 Feb 2037
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.
Squad2 Feb 2037
A season average of 7.90 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market2 Feb 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom2 Feb 2037
Crisis meeting at KAMAZ
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.
Squad2 Feb 2037
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market2 Feb 2037
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vasyl Ohorodnyk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAMAZ the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Feb 2037
He is 21, he is averaging 7.33, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Boardroom2 Feb 2037
An order from above at KAMAZ: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jan 2037
A fracture rules Maxim Sergeev out for 52 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market26 Jan 2037
“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.
Player ratings26 Jan 2037
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.09, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad26 Jan 2037
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.
Squad26 Jan 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Jan 2037
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad26 Jan 2037
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; KAMAZ are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market26 Jan 2037
Add another name to the list: Salyut have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alexandr Guryev. The answer from KAMAZ has not changed — yet.
Player ratings26 Jan 2037
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Jan 2037
Maxim Sergeev breaks a bone — 60 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match19 Jan 2037
KAMAZ refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 53 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market19 Jan 2037
“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.
Player ratings19 Jan 2037
Aleksei Arsenyev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.92
A mark of 7.92 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.
Squad19 Jan 2037
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.
Player ratings19 Jan 2037
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad19 Jan 2037
A season average of 7.52 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad19 Jan 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Jan 2037
SKA Khabarovsk made KAMAZ work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
In brief
-
Boardroom
No signings allowed at KAMAZ
-
Boardroom
The KAMAZ debt reaches $34.7M
-
Player ratings
Mauro Ibarra runs at them all day
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jan 2037
Maxim Sergeev breaks a bone — 67 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match7 Jan 2037
The small margins put KAMAZ out
Out, 1‑3 to CSKA Moscow, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad12 Jan 2037
A season average of 7.89 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market12 Jan 2037
Ramires hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings12 Jan 2037
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.48, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad12 Jan 2037
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings12 Jan 2037
Two goals and a mark of 8.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match10 Jan 2037
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Youssef Erraoui. 5‑4 against Spartak Kostroma, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad12 Jan 2037
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jan 2037
Maxim Sergeev breaks a bone — 76 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match3 Jan 2037
A 2-goal lead gone for KAMAZ
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Chernomorets kept coming because nothing stopped them, and KAMAZ will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Squad5 Jan 2037
Defences have started doubling up on Mattia Iacovello
14 goals and a season average of 7.85 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market5 Jan 2037
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings5 Jan 2037
Aleksei Arsenyev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.28
A mark of 8.28 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.
Squad5 Jan 2037
At 21, Aleksei Arsenyev is already the best thing here
An average of 7.27 in a first team he is several years too young for. KAMAZ have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad5 Jan 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Jan 2037
$884.7K of the owner's money at KAMAZ
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Player ratings5 Jan 2037
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
In brief
-
Player ratings
Youssef Erraoui was on a different afternoon to everybody else
-
Player ratings
Mattia Iacovello was on a different afternoon to everybody else
-
Boardroom
Wages eat 193% of everything KAMAZ earn
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Dec 2036
A fracture rules Maxim Sergeev out for 84 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market29 Dec 2036
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Dec 2036
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad29 Dec 2036
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings29 Dec 2036
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad29 Dec 2036
Saminu Abdullahi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings29 Dec 2036
Marked 9.37 — 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.
Player ratings29 Dec 2036
Marked 8.71 — 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.
Match27 Dec 2036
A 1‑0 win over Chelyabinsk, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Dec 2036
Maxim Sergeev breaks a bone — 92 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match22 Dec 2036
KAMAZ are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 43 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market22 Dec 2036
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Dec 2036
13 goals and a season average of 7.79. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings22 Dec 2036
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Dec 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Dec 2036
Home is on Ramires's mind
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; KAMAZ are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match20 Dec 2036
KAMAZ come up short against Ufa
Ufa left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings22 Dec 2036
Mattia Iacovello was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.94. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Dec 2036
Maxim Sergeev breaks a bone — 99 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market15 Dec 2036
Ramires puts it in writing
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Dec 2036
Defences have started doubling up on Mattia Iacovello
12 goals and a season average of 7.76 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad15 Dec 2036
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad15 Dec 2036
Words at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Iacovello 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.
Player ratings15 Dec 2036
Marked 9.15 — 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.
Boardroom15 Dec 2036
KAMAZ cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Boardroom15 Dec 2036
KAMAZ are $34.7M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Match13 Dec 2036
A 2‑2 draw with Yenisey leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Dec 2036
Maxim Sergeev breaks a bone — 106 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market8 Dec 2036
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings8 Dec 2036
No sign of nerves from Aleksei Arsenyev at 21 — 8.37
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Aleksei Arsenyev did not need any: 8.37, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad8 Dec 2036
11 goals and a season average of 7.72. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match6 Dec 2036
KAMAZ cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad8 Dec 2036
At 21, Aleksei Arsenyev is already the best thing here
An average of 7.27 in a first team he is several years too young for. KAMAZ have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad8 Dec 2036
“The easiest signature of my career.” Guillermo Guzmán and KAMAZ agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match6 Dec 2036
Chaika made KAMAZ work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings8 Dec 2036
Ninety minutes of Mattia Iacovello at his very best
Marked 9.43. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at KAMAZ.
In brief
-
Boardroom
$898.5K of the owner's money at KAMAZ
-
Boardroom
Wages eat 165% of everything KAMAZ earn
-
Player ratings
One of those days for Mauro Ibarra
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Dec 2036
Dmitry Chamzhaev damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Squad1 Dec 2036
Maxim Sergeev breaks a bone — 115 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 115 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad1 Dec 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match29 Nov 2036
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Aleksei Arsenyev scored in the 87th minute, Rodina had already begun thinking about the journey home, and KAMAZ took the lot.
Player ratings1 Dec 2036
Aleksei Arsenyev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.91
A mark of 7.91 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.
Squad1 Dec 2036
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match29 Nov 2036
KAMAZ cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings1 Dec 2036
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings1 Dec 2036
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.47, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Nov 2036
Dmitry Chamzhaev damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Squad24 Nov 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad24 Nov 2036
A fracture rules Benjamin Keller out for 33 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Nov 2036
Cup progress for KAMAZ
A 2‑1 win over Akhmat, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match24 Nov 2036
KAMAZ up to position 1
36 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match22 Nov 2036
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market24 Nov 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings24 Nov 2036
A brace, and Maxim Sergeev takes the afternoon — 9.37
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Maxim Sergeev provided it, and the 9.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Nov 2036
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Nov 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmitry Chamzhaev
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad17 Nov 2036
A fracture rules Benjamin Keller out for 40 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings17 Nov 2036
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings17 Nov 2036
Guillermo Guzmán, 34, rolls back the years — 8.17
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.17 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad17 Nov 2036
A season average of 7.65 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad17 Nov 2036
Tempers go at KAMAZ
Maxim Sergeev 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.
Match15 Nov 2036
Mattia Iacovello scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Sochi, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Match15 Nov 2036
KAMAZ leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Player ratings17 Nov 2036
Marked 8.98 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Nov 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmitry Chamzhaev
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad10 Nov 2036
A fracture rules Benjamin Keller out for 47 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason KAMAZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 Nov 2036
Ramires puts it in writing
“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 KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Nov 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings10 Nov 2036
No sign of nerves from Aleksei Arsenyev at 21 — 8.21
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Aleksei Arsenyev did not need any: 8.21, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The terraces10 Nov 2036
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad10 Nov 2036
Defences have started doubling up on Mattia Iacovello
9 goals and a season average of 7.61 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match8 Nov 2036
Rotor take the points off KAMAZ
Beaten 3‑5, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match8 Nov 2036
Aleksei Arsenyev among the goals in a wild afternoon
8 goals in one match, Aleksei Arsenyev on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of KAMAZ and Rotor.
In brief
-
Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Mattia Iacovello at his very best
-
Boardroom
Wages eat 153% of everything KAMAZ earn
-
Boardroom
No signings allowed at KAMAZ
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Nov 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmitry Chamzhaev
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 Nov 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom3 Nov 2036
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Ivan Gagarin has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom3 Nov 2036
The KAMAZ board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Player ratings3 Nov 2036
Aleksei Arsenyev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.07
A mark of 8.07 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.
Boardroom3 Nov 2036
The KAMAZ board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad3 Nov 2036
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Saminu Abdullahi and KAMAZ agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Nov 2036
He is 21, he is averaging 7.20, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Match1 Nov 2036
Maxim Sergeev among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Maxim Sergeev on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of KAMAZ and Ural.
In brief
-
Match
6 unbeaten for KAMAZ
-
Boardroom
The owner puts $797.8K into KAMAZ
-
Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Mattia Iacovello at his very best
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad27 Oct 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmitry Chamzhaev
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad27 Oct 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match27 Oct 2036
KAMAZ are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 32 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings27 Oct 2036
A brace, and Youssef Erraoui takes the afternoon — 9.16
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Youssef Erraoui provided it, and the 9.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad27 Oct 2036
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match25 Oct 2036
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Youssef Erraoui scored in the 88th minute, Fakel had already begun thinking about the journey home, and KAMAZ took the lot.
Player ratings27 Oct 2036
Aleksei Arsenyev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.54
A mark of 8.54 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.
Market27 Oct 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at KAMAZ is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match25 Oct 2036
KAMAZ cannot stop winning
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Oct 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmitry Chamzhaev
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. KAMAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad20 Oct 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad20 Oct 2036
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad20 Oct 2036
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market20 Oct 2036
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings20 Oct 2036
No sign of nerves from Aleksei Arsenyev at 21 — 7.74
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Aleksei Arsenyev did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings20 Oct 2036
Saminu Abdullahi, 35, rolls back the years — 7.84
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match18 Oct 2036
KAMAZ make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now KAMAZ have 4 straight wins of it.
The terraces20 Oct 2036
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
In brief
-
Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Maxim Sergeev at his very best
-
Match
KAMAZ get the job done against Rubin
-
Boardroom
KAMAZ are $33.5M in the red