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 Lokomotiv Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ilja Yeremeev is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad24 May 2027
César Montes 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.
Nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Evgeny Morozov has written the date down.
2 goals in 10 games at Neman — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lokomotiv Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
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.
“I watch every Lokomotiv Moscow game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zhetysu runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
Squad10 May 2027
César Montes 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.
5 goals in 8 games at Torpedo-BelAZ — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lokomotiv Moscow updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
9 appearances at Zhetysu and the goals have stopped going in. Lokomotiv Moscow lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Lokomotiv Moscow. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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 César Montes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch3 May 2027
Bogdan Sheiko’s loan is measured in nothing happening
12 clean sheets from 30 appearances at Kuban Holding. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“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 7 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
5 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.
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.
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 César Montes is on it.
“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.
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.
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.
Nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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 César Montes 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 Zhetysu runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until César Montes signs something — a contract at Lokomotiv Moscow 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 Lokomotiv Moscow. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Zelimkhan Bakaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
César Montes 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.
“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.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
Bogdan Sheiko’s loan is measured in nothing happening
11 clean sheets from 27 appearances at Kuban Holding. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
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.
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.
Viktor Johansson has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sergej Milinković-Savić and Lokomotiv Moscow agree another 3 years.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv Moscow they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ahmed Al Junaibi 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Fasson wants continental football; whether Lokomotiv Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
10 shut-outs in 26 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Bogdan Sheiko has been having a lot of them.
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.
3 appearances and 4 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Lokomotiv Moscow no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and César Montes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Lokomotiv Moscow. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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 Lokomotiv Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ilja Yeremeev is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until César Montes signs something — a contract at Lokomotiv Moscow or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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.
“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.
“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.
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad15 Mar 2027
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.
“I did not go to Arsenal Dzerzhinsk to sit and watch. I want to come back to Lokomotiv Moscow and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 30 matches say the rest.
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 Sergej Milinković-Savić is on it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Corinthians have kept their man, and Lokomotiv Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arseniy Ageev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotiv Moscow the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow heard it as anything else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexandr Siljanov and Lokomotiv Moscow agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yuri Krylov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Makar Lyubimov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zenit have kept their man, and Lokomotiv Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Position 3, 56 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 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.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 8 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 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.
The offer from Haugesund for Ilja Svinov 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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. CSKA Moscow moved on, Ilja Lantratov reports back to Lokomotiv Moscow, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“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.
In brief
SquadWords at Lokomotiv Moscow training over how hard people work
$18.5M was the most the club would pay and Internacional 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 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.
“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.
The fee is $1.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Rubin drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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 Lokomotiv Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
The fee is $120.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Rodina drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
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.
Lokomotiv Moscow have gone to Internacional 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.
Lokomotiv Moscow offered $13.0M; Orlando Pirates 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.
Ahmed Al Junaibi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ahmed Al Junaibi 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.
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.
“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 7 appearances in 26 say he has earned the hearing.
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 went to Orlando Pirates 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.
CSKA Moscow paid $3.3M 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.
The shirt still fits. Ilja Berkovskiy is back at Lokomotiv Moscow, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ilja Berkovskiy is living that version at Lokomotiv Moscow, and it tends to show in the first month.
Ahmed Al Junaibi 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bentonit Ijevan have kept their man, and Lokomotiv Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Gerzino Nyamsi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Slavia Mozyr for Cristian Ramírez 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 deal with Torpedo Moscow 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ahmed Al Junaibi wants continental football; whether Lokomotiv Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Marked 6.52. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torpedo Moscow have kept their man, and Lokomotiv Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending 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 Lokomotiv Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Lokomotiv Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout25 Jan 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Nikita Toporov to a room that had heard them before.
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 César Montes is on it.
In brief
SquadWords at Lokomotiv Moscow training over how hard people work
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sergej Milinković-Savić wants continental football; whether Lokomotiv Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The phone has started ringing about Gerzino Nyamsi again, and this time the name on the line is HNK Gorica. Lokomotiv Moscow are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Orenburg made Lokomotiv Moscow work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad18 Jan 2027
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.
Marked 8.35 — 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.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.90, and 2 involvements.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Philipp Förster’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Lokomotiv Moscow.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nikita Toporov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Arseniy Ageev is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
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.
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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nikita Toporov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Lokomotiv Moscow dressing room was either.
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 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.
Ahmed Al Junaibi 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.
Squad21 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Nikita Toporov to a room that had heard them before.
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 Sergej Milinković-Savić is on it.
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. Lokomotiv Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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.
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
10 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: Nikolay Komlichenko. 1‑0 against Rostov, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Lokomotiv Moscow will be judged on one thing only.
0‑3 to Zenit, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The first defeat in 16 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Zenit; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow heard it as anything else.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Fasson wants continental football; whether Lokomotiv Moscow can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mikhail Schetinin and Lokomotiv Moscow agree another 5 years.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Lokomotiv Moscow dressing room in a hurry
Position 3, 30 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.
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.
“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.
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.
9 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.
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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Lokomotiv Moscow will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Half the programme played, position 3, 30 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 95th minute. Volga will replay every second of the added time for a week.
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.
Zelimkhan Bakaev 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 16-year-old it feels ownership of. Georgy Pokrovsky 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.
8.23. 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 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.
Zelimkhan Bakaev 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 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.
Nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“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.
Akhmat 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Lokomotiv Moscow that is a harder question to answer.
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.
14 combined actions and 7.29. 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.
Squad9 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.
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.
With 7 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like 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 Lokomotiv Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 1‑0 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.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Maxim Nenakhov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Lokomotiv Moscow have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout2 Nov 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.” Nikita Toporov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Lokomotiv Moscow, another week without a signature from Philipp Förster.
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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; 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 Lucas Vera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
Nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
“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 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutSergey Pinyaev has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Siljanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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.
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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ilzat Akhmetov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Lokomotiv Moscow needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Spartak Nalchik are out and Lokomotiv Moscow go through, 3‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Position 3, 20 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.
4 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.
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 7.73 for the rest of it.
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sergej Milinković-Savić. 3‑2 against Baltika, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Zelimkhan Bakaev 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; 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Nikita Toporov could afford to be generous.
$2.4M was the most the club would pay and Fenerbahce 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 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.
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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Marked 6.85 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Lokomotiv Moscow will try again when the window opens; Al-Ittihad may not be selling by then.
$2.4M on the table at Fenerbahce. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Lokomotiv Moscow 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 6 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 be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Lokomotiv Moscow heard it as anything else.
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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.11, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Lokomotiv Moscow asked and Al Wahda 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fasson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Lokomotiv Moscow who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Lokomotiv Moscow are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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 Sergey Pinyaev is on it.
Giuliano is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Al-Hilal did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $9.4M for Sergej Milinković-Savić, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Lokomotiv Moscow have paid $8.3M for Ahmed Al Junaibi, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Qadisiyah have kept their man, and Lokomotiv Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Stoke City did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $4.0M for Viktor Johansson, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Sergej Milinković-Savić 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.
A 3‑1 win over Nizhniy Novgorod, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Al-Hilal 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bodo/Glimt have kept their man, and Lokomotiv Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Stoke City 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sergey Pinyaev did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Lokomotiv Moscow offered $3.7M; Baltika 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.
The offer from Akhmat Grozny for Mikhail Schetinin 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” KAMAZ had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer went to CSKA Moscow 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“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 offer went to Baltika 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.
$3.1M on the table at Baltika. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$2.9M on the table at Baltika. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.0M — a club that wants Eldar Ćivić enough to be asked twice.
Zelimkhan Bakaev 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 offer went to Young Boys 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sergey Pinyaev did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Qarabag have kept their man, and Lokomotiv Moscow go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Add another name to the list: Chelyabinsk have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Yegor Pogostnov. The answer from Lokomotiv Moscow has not changed — yet.
“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.