A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KAMAZ will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Avangard waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KAMAZ is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around KAMAZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
David Karaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KAMAZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KAMAZ will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
David Karaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Add another name to the list: Avangard have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Suren Kirakosyan. The answer from KAMAZ has not changed — yet.
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with KAMAZ this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
In brief
The dugoutVitaly Semenov asks for a word with the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Tumiatti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KAMAZ will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Semenov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KAMAZ, another week without a signature from Alexey Gritsaenko.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAMAZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Georgy Shalamkov has, at KAMAZ, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Nikita Dronov has agreed terms with Chernomorets for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
David Karaev 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.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. KAMAZ were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KAMAZ will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Daniil Veselov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Tumiatti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with KAMAZ this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dominik Csorba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Semenov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. KAMAZ told Artur Anisimov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at KAMAZ says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
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.
Daniil Veselov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Tumiatti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Artur Anisimov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAMAZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee KAMAZ could ask drops and the wages Vitaly Semenov can ask rise.
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.
Position 8 and 17 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vitaly Semenov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAMAZ the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Daniil Veselov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Semenov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Vitaly Semenov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
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.
David Karaev 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Tumiatti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Arseny Abdulkhalikov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Daniil Veselov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAMAZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Arseny Abdulkhalikov signs something — a contract at KAMAZ or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one KAMAZ will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vitaly Semenov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAMAZ the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Daniil Veselov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Semenov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KAMAZ, another week without a signature from Vitaly Semenov.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at KAMAZ than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Adamkovič is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at KAMAZ would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“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.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Trey George is living that version at KAMAZ, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arseny Abdulkhalikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Daniil Veselov 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KAMAZ, another week without a signature from Tuukka Andberg.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAMAZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation KAMAZ are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Arseny Abdulkhalikov signs something — a contract at KAMAZ or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Position 8 and 17 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.
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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Vitaly Semenov has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Daniil Veselov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Andrey Maloletov is living that version at KAMAZ, and it tends to show in the first month.
KAMAZ ran out of time with Chernomorets. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Rijo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at KAMAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gustavo Rijo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around KAMAZ the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Everything agreed with Chernomorets, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Zenit keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
KAMAZ offered $350.0K; Torpedo Moscow said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
David Karaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“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.
Maxim Laikin has gone, the accounts have $420.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
KAMAZ and Volga have settled on $100.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
KAMAZ have gone to Torpedo Moscow with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
Nizhniy Novgorod paid $420.0K and KAMAZ took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Yenisey will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Alexandr Gubanov has pre-agreed a move to KAMAZ, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arseny Abdulkhalikov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Maxim Khokhlov was one of the reasons people came, and $280.0K does not replace that by itself.
Daniil Veselov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Rijo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Arseny Abdulkhalikov signs something — a contract at KAMAZ or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one KAMAZ will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Rodion Aristov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Daniil Veselov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for KAMAZ is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arseny Abdulkhalikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Artur Anisimov is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
In brief
BoardroomNobody arrives at KAMAZ until somebody leaves
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.
“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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Gustavo Rijo has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ruslan Ayukin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAMAZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Gustavo Rijo 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.
Something was said to Magomed Ramazanov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee KAMAZ could ask drops and the wages Vitaly Semenov can ask rise.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KAMAZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Daniil Veselov 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 Jan 2029
Ruslan Ayukin 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Arseny Abdulkhalikov signs something — a contract at KAMAZ or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at KAMAZ says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KAMAZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 8 and 17 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.
“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.
Daniil Veselov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Ruslan Ayukin 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Arseny Abdulkhalikov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KAMAZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Rijo 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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Vitaly Semenov has moved up it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAMAZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KAMAZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arseny Abdulkhalikov 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.
Something was said to Vitaly Semenov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Daniil Veselov 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Ruslan Ayukin 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrey Rogachev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Arseny Abdulkhalikov signs something — a contract at KAMAZ or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KAMAZ. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Daniil Veselov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arseny Abdulkhalikov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAMAZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Position 8 on 17 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arseny Abdulkhalikov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Rodion Aristov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KAMAZ, another week without a signature from Vitaly Semenov.
The words a physio says slowly. 48 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ruslan Ayukin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Artur Anisimov will call it something else in private.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
56 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.
Daniil Veselov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Gustavo Rijo is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAMAZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KAMAZ, another week without a signature from Gustavo Rijo.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Timofey Kalistratov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
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.
63 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KAMAZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 8 and 15 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
Daniil Veselov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Everybody at KAMAZ saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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.
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KAMAZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruslan Ayukin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KAMAZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arseny Abdulkhalikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. KAMAZ know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The words a physio says slowly. 87 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Daniil Veselov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arseny Abdulkhalikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Rodion Aristov after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAMAZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KAMAZ will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 10 and 10 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.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KAMAZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Daniil Veselov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Ruslan Ayukin 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artur Anisimov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
21 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.
0‑1 against Dinamo St Petersburg, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Maxim Khokhlov will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at KAMAZ escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KAMAZ will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lorenzo De Martin has, at KAMAZ, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
At 22 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.99, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
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.
“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.
Daniil Veselov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruslan Ayukin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 6.78 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Rodion Aristov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAMAZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, KAMAZ have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
In brief
Player ratingsDenis Mironov changes it off the bench
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. KAMAZ will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Daniil Veselov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
“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.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 29 signed and 12 gone
That is the business done at KAMAZ until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ruslan Ayukin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Still no offer on the table, and Vitaly Semenov’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Dinamo Vladivostok next, and one man in the KAMAZ dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
“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.
“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.
$20.0K was the most the club would pay and Dinamo Moscow were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Solodukhin 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.
At 22 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.
“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.
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.
Daniil Veselov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and Volga were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Rodion Aristov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
“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.
Daniil Veselov 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.
$20.0K on the table at Dinamo Moscow. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrey Solodukhin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
KAMAZ had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ruslan Ayukin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
0‑3 to Dinamo Moscow 2, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
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.
Baltika paid $220.0K and KAMAZ took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arseny Abdulkhalikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
21 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Andrey Solodukhin had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Volga is saying, and nobody at KAMAZ is enjoying the guessing.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Şirin Şirinov has just signed for KAMAZ, and for once the answer mattered.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The words a physio says slowly. 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.
“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.
The terraces24 Jul 2028
Supporters turn on the $260.0K sale of Maxim Burko
He is going to Ural, the club has $260.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
KAMAZ had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Alexandr Pomalyuk has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
31 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.
34 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.
“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.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Andrey Solodukhin again, and this time the name on the line is Dinamo Stavropol. KAMAZ are listening politely and promising nothing.
David Karaev 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Chris Wilunda has just signed for KAMAZ, and for once the answer mattered.
1 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around KAMAZ people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
David Karaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
$38.0K was the most the club would pay and Volga were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nazar Yefimov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Miroslav Lapin 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.
In brief
SquadWords at KAMAZ training over how hard people work
It is arithmetic now, and the arithmetic is done. A summer of hard questions starts early at KAMAZ, and next season's fixture list reads very differently.
“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.
The name of Alexandr Pomalyuk has come up in conversations KAMAZ were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Chelyabinsk paid $230.0K and KAMAZ took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
KAMAZ asked and Fakel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Rijo 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.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Moscow is saying, and nobody at KAMAZ is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Baltika paid $210.0K and KAMAZ took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
KAMAZ have made the call to Dinamo Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
KAMAZ have made the call to Lokomotiv Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The offer from Akhmat Grozny for Maxim Laikin was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“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.
David Karaev 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.
Add another name to the list: Baltika have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Anton Roschin. The answer from KAMAZ has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sochi have kept their man, and KAMAZ go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Ruslan Ayukin 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.
“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.
KAMAZ have made the call to Dinamo Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Position 18 and 18 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. KAMAZ have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Sabail for Həbib Hüşənov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yaroslav Sosnikhin is living that version at KAMAZ, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ruslan Ayukin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
“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 name of Alexandr Pomalyuk has come up in conversations KAMAZ were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Laikin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I 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.
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.
“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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Schetinin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Schetinin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KAMAZ can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAMAZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luca Sestito signs something — a contract at KAMAZ or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Surkhaikhan Abdullaev may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee KAMAZ could ask drops and the wages Savely Ratnikov can ask rise.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
“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.
David Karaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
14 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Schetinin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at KAMAZ can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAMAZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Rodion Aristov recited it perfectly.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Schetinin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The bill for the sacking has arrived. Andrei Efimov leaves with $42.2K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Eduardo Anderson has taken that personally, in the best sense, and KAMAZ are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luca Sestito trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at KAMAZ would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Schetinin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luca Sestito trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at KAMAZ would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at KAMAZ says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
“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.
David Karaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Schetinin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAMAZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luca Sestito signs something — a contract at KAMAZ or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one KAMAZ will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“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.
David Karaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Schetinin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maxim Burko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduardo Anderson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Artur Anisimov'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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KAMAZ, another week without a signature from Vitaly Semenov.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at KAMAZ says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
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.
Position 18 on 18 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Eduardo Anderson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Schetinin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
David Karaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Schetinin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luca Sestito signs something — a contract at KAMAZ or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at KAMAZ. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at KAMAZ, another week without a signature from Gustavo Rijo.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee KAMAZ could ask drops and the wages Savely Ratnikov can ask rise.
Position 18 and 17 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.
The offer from Raufoss for Alexandr Pomalyuk was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
David Karaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduardo Anderson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Andrei Efimov left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutEduardo Anderson is still being punished for one mistake
The phone has started ringing about Alexandr Pomalyuk again, and this time the name on the line is TPS. KAMAZ are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Artur Anisimov knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Andrei Efimov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
“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.
14 seasons and 308 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Schetinin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 ratings28 Feb 2028
Up for the corner, and Maxim Laikin delivers — 7.62
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Maxim Laikin scored, was marked 7.62, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
KAMAZ close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
David Karaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Schetinin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
KAMAZ asked and Sochi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
David Karaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Schetinin 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.
KAMAZ asked and Rostov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Two goals and a mark of 8.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from TPS for Alexandr Pomalyuk was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Eduardo Anderson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Schetinin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Two 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Andrei Efimov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Schetinin 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.
KAMAZ asked and Nizhniy Novgorod said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
22 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.
0‑3 against Leningradets, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“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 deal with Krasnodar is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
David Karaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
David Karaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Schetinin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Andrei Efimov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Artem Popov.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Schetinin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Schetinin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. KAMAZ told Maxim Laikin something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Andrei Efimov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
18 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between KAMAZ and Volga, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.85 for the rest of it.
Eduardo Anderson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Schetinin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 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.
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.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
David Karaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Schetinin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Andrei Efimov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what KAMAZ can pretend not to have heard.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at KAMAZ can tell you which week it ends in.
David Karaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Schetinin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Andrei Efimov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutArtem Popov dropped after a run of poor form
0‑3 to Nizhniy Novgorod, 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Mikhail Schetinin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Schetinin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
12 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
David Karaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
14 combined actions and 6.86. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Andrei Efimov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad22 Nov 2027
6 new faces, and KAMAZ are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Artem Popov
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
The dugoutMaxim Burko knocks on the manager’s door
19 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrey Semenov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. KAMAZ told Andrey Solodukhin something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAMAZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ural in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at KAMAZ would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KAMAZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Eduardo Anderson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Schetinin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Eduardo Anderson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at KAMAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrey Semenov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad25 Oct 2027
5 new faces, and KAMAZ are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Andrei Efimov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Artem Popov
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at KAMAZ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. KAMAZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Evgeny Zamerets: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
7.91, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Schetinin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Andrey Semenov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The 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.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artem Sukhanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
“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.
Mikhail Schetinin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Semenov 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.
0‑3 to Akron, 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.
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.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Schetinin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Maxim Laikin reports back to KAMAZ with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Up for the corner, and Maxim Laikin delivers — 7.66
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Maxim Laikin scored, was marked 7.66, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Laikin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for KAMAZ is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Nizhniy Novgorod moved on, Anton Roschin reports back to KAMAZ, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Akhmed Jindoyan has just signed for KAMAZ, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 15 gone
That is the business done at KAMAZ until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Vladislav Vasiljev had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Moscow have kept their man, and KAMAZ go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Something was said to Mikhail Schetinin and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
“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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Laikin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kaluga waiting with a shirt. Nobody at KAMAZ is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
David Karaev 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.
13 combined actions and 6.70. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Andrei Efimov to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at KAMAZ is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Everything agreed with Arsenal Tula, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Luca Sestito and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
KAMAZ asked and Zenit said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I 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.
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Andrei Efimov kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Vitaly Semenov
The dugoutMaxim Burko knocks on the manager’s door
Mikhail Schetinin 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.
KAMAZ asked and Lokomotiv Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Laikin 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.
16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.