The words a physio says slowly. 116 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A brace, and Jhon Córdoba takes the afternoon — 8.80
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jhon Córdoba provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 3, 48 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Krasnodar hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Jhon Córdoba 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.
25 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Krasnodar hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Tormena 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.
23 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Juan Manuel Boselli wants continental football; whether Krasnodar can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Krasnodar 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 Krasnodar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Jhon Córdoba 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.75 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Daniil Zhitnikov did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Krasnodar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Costa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Krasnodar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Krasnodar, and 0 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Alexandr Chernikov will call it something else in private.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Jhon Córdoba could not do
Dinamo Moscow will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Krasnodar were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 9.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.62 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bogdan Moskvichev is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Diego Costa 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 are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Krasnodar will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Tormena was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Krasnodar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhon Córdoba 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 did not go to Dinamo Bucharest to sit and watch. I want to come back to Krasnodar and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 19 matches say the rest.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Eduard Spertsyan signs something — a contract at Krasnodar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.51 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Krasnodar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Jhon Córdoba 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.
Alexandr Chernikov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Daniil Zhitnikov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Krasnodar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Costa 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.
20 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Krasnodar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
27 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Krasnodar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Eduard Spertsyan will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Krasnodar escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Juan Manuel Boselli wants continental football; whether Krasnodar can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
A season average of 7.39 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Krasnodar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhon Córdoba is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Krasnodar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Krasnodar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.31 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Krasnodar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Diego Costa 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Out, 1‑1 to Spartak Kostroma, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.70 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Tormena 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Krasnodar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhon Córdoba 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 words a physio says slowly. 47 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 remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Krasnodar may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Jhon Córdoba 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.
Alexandr Chernikov 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.
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
13 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Tormena 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Krasnodar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Costa 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 2‑1 win over Spartak Moscow, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Spartak Moscow spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.57 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 26 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Krasnodar hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Defensive actions: 23. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jhon Córdoba 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.
Marked 9.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Krasnodar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhon Córdoba 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.
Lucas Olaza was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Krasnodar, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Diego Costa signs something — a contract at Krasnodar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
29 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Krasnodar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Andrey Ivlev is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Diego Costa 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.
A 2‑0 win over Dinamo Makhachkala, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
In brief
Player ratingsEduard Spertsyan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
43 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.
Tormena 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Eldar Guseinov is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eduard Spertsyan provided it, and the 8.91 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.27 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 29 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
25 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Jhon Córdoba 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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Diego Costa wants continental football; whether Krasnodar can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Tormena 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Daniil Zhitnikov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Krasnodar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Costa 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.
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.
“I watch every Krasnodar game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Chaika runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
27 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Krasnodar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jhon Córdoba 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexandr Koryakin and Krasnodar agree another 3 years.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Krasnodar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tormena 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 8.53 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Add another name to the list: Chaika have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Artem Dryakhlov. The answer from Krasnodar has not changed — yet.
Uroš Drezgić 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Alexandr Koryakin knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Krasnodar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Eduard Spertsyan is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Tormena 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.
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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Krasnodar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Krasnodar, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Chernomorets for Artem Dryakhlov 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.
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.
Alexandr Chernikov 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.
8.76. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
33 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The offer from Sochi for Douglas Augusto 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.
Tormena 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Krasnodar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Costa 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 9.05 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
8.99. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Juan Manuel Boselli. 2‑0 against Akron, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Tormena 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Krasnodar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batxi 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.
8.78. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Krasnodar, another week without a signature from Lucas Olaza.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Krasnodar heard it as anything else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Eduard Spertsyan and Krasnodar agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Krasnodar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Diego Costa 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.