The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lokomotiv Moscow have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiv Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
“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; Lokomotiv Moscow are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv Moscow 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 Evgeny Morozov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Lokomotiv Moscow game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at NK Varazdin runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Abdulrahman Ghareeb had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.96, and nobody on the pitch better.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Lokomotiv Moscow 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.
“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 Lokomotiv Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“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; Lokomotiv Moscow are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nahitan Nández 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lokomotiv Moscow people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
A 2‑1 win over Dinamo Moscow, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Morozov 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 Lokomotiv Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
Lokomotiv Moscow asked and Betis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lokomotiv Moscow people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ilja Lantratov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Gomel for Rifat Zhemaletdinov 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.
Gerzino Nyamsi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lokomotiv Moscow people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Lokomotiv Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Zenit; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
CSKA Moscow paid $5.1M and Lokomotiv Moscow took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nahitan Nández scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lokomotiv Moscow have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lokomotiv Moscow have done the hard part with Dinamo Moscow, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.31 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7.94, 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.
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 7.53 for the rest of it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” César Montes has his answer from Lokomotiv Moscow; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 8.26 — 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.
Minute 88, against Krasnodar, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lokomotiv Moscow people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from AS Trencin for Sergey Pinyaev 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Karim Onisiwo. 1‑0 against Orenburg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 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.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mikhail Schetinin 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vasily Bocharov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Oleg Dolgikh 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Lokomotiv Moscow have had the benefit of it.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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 Lokomotiv Moscow, 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 Lokomotiv Moscow 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Anatoly Nikulin, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jindřich Staněk is on it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Anatoly Nikulin was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Lokomotiv Moscow dressing room was either.
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.
7 goals in 18 games at Krylya Sovetov — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lokomotiv Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Spartak Moscow? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.60 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Patrick Berg 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.
100 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Craig Dawson 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 version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.23, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Nahitan Nández was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
Spartak Moscow next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
“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 Lokomotiv Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Evgeny Morozov 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.
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Lucas Vera 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiv Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.08 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Nahitan Nández 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 an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Sergey Pinyaev 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Nikolay Komlichenko in the middle of it, and Metallurg unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
8.34. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokomotiv Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Evgeny Morozov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Lucas Vera 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lokomotiv Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Evgeny Morozov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Akhmat in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Sochi the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Lokomotiv Moscow will enjoy reviewing.
Two goals and a mark of 8.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Lokomotiv Moscow can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexandr Siljanov and Lokomotiv Moscow agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
SquadEvgeny Morozov falls out with a teammate over standards
A 3‑2 win over Dinamo Moscow, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Morozov 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.
8.33. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Patrick Berg 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 Lucas Vera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Lokomotiv Moscow are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“It is 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lokomotiv Moscow has been clear about where Anton Mitryushkin stands, which is more than many ever get.
The first defeat in 7 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Rubin; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“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; Lokomotiv Moscow 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 Evgeny Morozov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ivan Lepskiy 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 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 Lokomotiv Moscow know it.
Nahitan Nández 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 Evgeny Morozov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Alexandr Rudenko has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lokomotiv Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Rubin next, and one man in the Lokomotiv Moscow dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
7 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexandr Rudenko provided it, and the 9.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Lokomotiv Moscow. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
“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; Lokomotiv Moscow are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Evgeny Morozov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
Player ratingsDamián Puebla beats them one at a time
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiv Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nahitan Nández scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“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; Lokomotiv Moscow are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Vera 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.
10 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.
“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 Lokomotiv Moscow, and 0 appearances in 7 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Sergey Babkin
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nahitan Nández scored, was marked 7.69, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rubin have kept their man, and Lokomotiv Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
César Montes 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiv Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Slavia Mozyr had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Lokomotiv Moscow close the window on a squad of their own making
9 in and 4 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.
Lokomotiv Moscow ran out of time with Sogdiana. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.95 beside his name.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and KAMAZ waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Lokomotiv Moscow asked and Galatasaray said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bodo/Glimt did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $14.2M for Patrick Berg, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lokomotiv Moscow have done the hard part with Sogdiana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“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 Lokomotiv Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Lokomotiv Moscow hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexandr Rudenko and Lokomotiv Moscow agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Everything agreed with Bodo/Glimt, 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 right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Lokomotiv Moscow and CSKA Moscow have settled on $2.2M. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiv Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Nahitan Nández, marked 7.89, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The fee is $1.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Krylya Sovetov drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Lokomotiv Moscow have paid $10.2M for Nahitan Nández, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$1.3M settles it between the clubs for Ivan Lepskiy
Krylya Sovetov have accepted the money. What Lokomotiv Moscow do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The fee is $5.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Orenburg drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Lokomotiv Moscow offered $5.5M; Orenburg 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.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's goal wins it for Lokomotiv Moscow — 7.86
Beaten 0‑2 by Spartak Moscow in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
Lokomotiv Moscow and Orenburg have settled on $5.2M. 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lokomotiv Moscow have done the hard part with Al-Qadisiyah, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lokomotiv Moscow have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Lokomotiv Moscow asked and Celta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.0M — a club that wants Damián Puebla enough to be asked twice.
Evgeny Morozov 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.
Lokomotiv Moscow have gone to Galatasaray 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.
The offer went to Al-Qadisiyah this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Atlanta United FC wanted more than $8.0M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $1.1M has been paid because Jindřich Staněk is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.0M — a club that wants Damián Puebla enough to be asked twice.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Rifat Zhemaletdinov is a Lokomotiv Moscow player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fenerbahce have kept their man, and Lokomotiv Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$6.3M on the table at Atlanta United FC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$1.1M on the table at Slavia Prague. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Abdulrahman Ghareeb is living that version at Lokomotiv Moscow, and it tends to show in the first month.