Nart close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 9 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.
Magomednabi Yagjaev 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nart, another week without a signature from Raufa Aghastya.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ratmir Mashezov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nart can pretend not to have heard.
Nart asked and Yenisey said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
The deal with Volna 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.
Astemir Abazov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rodina have kept their man, and Nart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Joel Dost 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nart can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSK Pervorechenskoe have kept their man, and Nart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joel Dost 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.
Nart have made the call to Dinamo Bryansk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
The deal with PSK Pervorechenskoe 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Yenisey keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nart asked and PSK Pervorechenskoe 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nart can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joel Dost 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 dugout11 Aug 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Raufa Aghastya's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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 instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexandr Olenev. 3‑1 against Orenburg 2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nart lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Astemir Abazov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gamzat Khizriev, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Jul 2031
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ratmir Mashezov 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. 34 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nart can pretend not to have heard.
6 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nart can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luka Filatov 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Maksim Isakov 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fyodor Krylov 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nart is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal with Sibir 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joel Dost 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.
Nart have made the call to PSK Pervorechenskoe. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
This is the morning a town finds out what the accounts have been doing while it watched the football. The debt gets written down to something payable, and the football pays for it in points.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Yenisey is saying, and nobody at Nart is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
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 medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nart have done the hard part with Dinamo Bryansk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ratmir Mashezov 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 respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torpedo Vladimir have kept their man, and Nart go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Nart know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joel Dost was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nart is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Islamitdin Abdullaev has his answer from Nart; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ratmir Mashezov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Nart were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Joel Dost falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raufa Aghastya trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The supervision ends, the embargo lifts, and a chairman may sign a cheque without asking anybody. It has taken a year and it has cost a squad, and this is still the best boardroom morning the club has had in that year.
Astemir Abazov 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $6.5M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Joel Dost 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nart, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nart can pretend not to have heard.
Astemir Abazov 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 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ratmir Mashezov 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.19, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gamzat Khizriev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nart know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Nart 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.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Nart could ask drops and the wages Fedor Bondar can ask rise.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Nart has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Nart will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad12 May 2031
Joel Dost 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.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 52 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Franck Otchere provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad5 May 2031
Birger Pedersen is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Nart will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Birger Pedersen did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart 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; Nart 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 Ratmir Mashezov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Pavel Gritsun and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
3‑0, and Franck Otchere took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Nart tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings21 Apr 2031
Birger Pedersen, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.51
A mark of 8.51 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A season average of 7.16 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Nart know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
He is 20 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nart can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joel Dost 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 Nart 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Fedor Bondar 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. Ratmir Mashezov 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, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
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.
Astemir Abazov 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nart, another week without a signature from Raufa Aghastya.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ratmir Mashezov 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 dugout7 Apr 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Pavel Gritsun's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Astemir Abazov 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.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Joel Dost 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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Dinamo Stavropol in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Cesar Pineda is on it.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Nart could ask drops and the wages Raufa Aghastya can ask rise.
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.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Andrey Nazar 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 else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Alexandr Olenev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ratmir Mashezov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugoutJames Just has become a man the manager trusts
241Edition
The Nart Gazette
10 Mar 2031
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Match8 Mar 2031
Yegor Yelesin wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Yegor Yelesin found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Chaika M went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings10 Mar 2031
A brace, and Yegor Yelesin takes the afternoon — 8.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yegor Yelesin provided it, and the 8.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings10 Mar 2031
Franck Otchere, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nart have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ratmir Mashezov has his answer from Nart; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Astemir Abazov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Nart is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev 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.
He is 23 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.
That is the business done at Nart 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.
The deal with Sibir 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.08, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Astemir Abazov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Amir Djumaev 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Nart is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Raufa Aghastya, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Everything agreed with Spartak Kostroma, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Franck Otchere 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.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Nart are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nart can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Dinamo Bryansk 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.
Astemir Abazov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev 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.
Nart have made the call to Volna. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout10 Feb 2031
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Nart dressing room was 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.
Astemir Abazov 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 Amir Djumaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A loan enquiry to Spartak Kostroma: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Torpedo Miass spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nart can pretend not to have heard.
A season average of 7.06 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Nart know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Alexandr Olenev 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.
Everybody at Nart saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 33 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
He is 16 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Pereverzev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Magomednabi Yagjaev 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.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Amir Djumaev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
“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 Nart, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Astemir Abazov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Sibir made Nart work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings13 Jan 2031
Yegor Yelesin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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 dugout13 Jan 2031
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.” Interim Coach, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Astemir Abazov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Pereverzev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nart, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A season average of 7.04 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Nart know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yegor Yelesin. 1‑0 against Legion, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.04 — 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.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
7 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Amir Djumaev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Legion in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Astemir Abazov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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 Nart know it.
Position 13, 22 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Franck Otchere did not need any: 7.87, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Amir Djumaev 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.32 — 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.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
The manager has not finished forgetting Amir Djumaev's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Franck Otchere provided it, and the 8.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Nart know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Magomednabi Yagjaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Franck Otchere 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Raufa Aghastya, and the manager let it.
The dugout2 Dec 2030
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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutRaufa Aghastya is still being punished for one mistake
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nart can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Pereverzev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Astemir Abazov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Amir Djumaev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexandr Olenev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Astemir Abazov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nart needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Olenev signs something — a contract at Nart or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Nart the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Nart could ask drops and the wages Roden Vahe can ask rise.
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 7.65 for the rest of it.
Astemir Abazov 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 Amir Djumaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Something was said to Franck Otchere and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Roden Vahe
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kurban Kurbanov provided it, and the 8.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Franck Otchere did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Pereverzev 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 Nart who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dmitry Pereverzev has his answer from Nart; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Amir Djumaev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Squad28 Oct 2030
7 new faces, and Nart 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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings21 Oct 2030
Franck Otchere, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 9.23
A mark of 9.23 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Alexandr Olenev 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 Amir Djumaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.69, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Magomednabi Yagjaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Pereverzev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nart can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Franck Otchere 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. Nart know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Franck Otchere did not need any: 8.97, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
11 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Kuban Holding were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Astemir Abazov 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 finished 3‑2, and it was Franck Otchere’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Nart.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Amir Djumaev 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 21 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Franck Otchere had Nart level again within 4 minutes, and Kuban Holding never got to play with a lead at all.
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Astemir Abazov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Pereverzev 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nart, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against PSK Pervorechenskoe? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“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 Nart, and it is not being withdrawn.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Amir Djumaev 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.
Everybody at Nart saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Nart were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Nart close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 9 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nart have done the hard part with Akron, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Astemir Abazov 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 Amir Djumaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nart, another week without a signature from Fedor Bondar.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fedor Bondar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Everything agreed with SKA Khabarovsk, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Amir Djumaev 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nart has been clear about where James Just stands, which is more than many ever get.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Avangard kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Nart will be asked about the last half hour all week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kurban Kurbanov provided it, and the 8.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings19 Aug 2030
Cesar Pineda, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.06
A mark of 8.06 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
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 medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nart have done the hard part with Kuban, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Astemir Abazov 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 Dmitry Pereverzev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nart can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Yegor Yelesin
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nart can pretend not to have heard.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Astemir Abazov 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Pavel Blinov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Nart have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amir Djumaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nart they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Day 14 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutYegor Yelesin knocks on the manager's door
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
“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 Nart, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Avangard keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Nart asked and Dinamo Kirov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nart have done the hard part with Salyut, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Astemir Abazov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSK Pervorechenskoe have kept their man, and Nart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev 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.
Astemir Abazov 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Nart is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
PSK Pervorechenskoe have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nart lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nart is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Kirov keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
PSK Pervorechenskoe have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cesar Pineda 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mironshoh Shodmonov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nart lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deal with Tyumen 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Veles is saying, and nobody at Nart is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rodina have kept their man, and Nart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Amir Djumaev 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. Nart know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nart lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nart can pretend not to have heard.
Astemir Abazov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The 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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Amir Djumaev 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.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nart lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Astemir Abazov 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Nart are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Nart 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nart, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The club is in the hands of administrators, 9 points have gone off the table, and no signing may be made until further notice. Everything this season was about was decided in a room nobody from the ground was sitting in.
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nart lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Smoroda will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nart the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Magomednabi Yagjaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
In brief
SquadWords at Nart training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nart 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 Nart 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 Ratmir Mashezov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Astemir Abazov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Amir Djumaev signs something — a contract at Nart or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“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 Nart, and it is not being withdrawn.
Astemir Abazov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad13 May 2030
Amir Djumaev 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.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Nobody at Nart 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 year of somebody else signing off every invoice ends this week. The books are smaller, the squad is smaller, and for the first time since it began the club is allowed to plan.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Nart can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nart they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Artem Smoroda has agreed terms with Neftyanik for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next 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 Nart 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 Amir Djumaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nart can pretend not to have heard.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Neftyanik were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ratmir Mashezov 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kurban Kurbanov. 2‑1 against Neftyanik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Daniil Kudryavtsev could afford to be generous.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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 Nart, and it is not being withdrawn.
Astemir Abazov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev 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 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.
“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 dugoutYaroslav Dol knocks on the manager’s door
7 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nart can pretend not to have heard.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Magomednabi Yagjaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Amir Djumaev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniil Kudryavtsev after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Nart can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ratmir Mashezov 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nart can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Daniil Kudryavtsev left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Magomednabi Yagjaev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nart needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Nart could ask drops and the wages Artem Smoroda can ask rise.
Astemir Abazov 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Nart can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Amir Djumaev 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.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Daniil Kudryavtsev to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Nart, and it is not being withdrawn.
Astemir Abazov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniil Kudryavtsev after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nart asked and Spartak Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Nart know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Islamitdin Abdullaev may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Nart asked and Ryazan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amir Djumaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 6.54 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Nart will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Daniil Kudryavtsev left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Yaroslav Dol had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed 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 Nart 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 Ratmir Mashezov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Vladivostok have kept their man, and Nart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amir Djumaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexandr Olenev provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nart is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nart 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. Kurban Kurbanov scored, was marked 7.82, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Magomednabi Yagjaev 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexandr Olenev. 3‑1 against Shakhter Donetsk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Nart go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amir Djumaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Nart, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Tyumen 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.
Magomednabi Yagjaev 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ratmir Mashezov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of 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 Nart can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nart have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Nart have done the hard part with Rubin, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Rodion Konstantinov 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.
Nart asked and Leningradets said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amir Djumaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Rodion Konstantinov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nart has been clear about where Farhod Hasanov stands, which is more than many ever get.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Daniil Kudryavtsev to a room that had heard them before.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rodion Konstantinov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nart the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kurban Kurbanov scored, was marked 7.45, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“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 Nart, and it is not being withdrawn.
Magomednabi Yagjaev 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 Ratmir Mashezov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Magomednabi Yagjaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Nart is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amir Djumaev 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nart, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Magomednabi Yagjaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Amir Djumaev 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 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Sochi 2 defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Olenev signs something — a contract at Nart or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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 Nart 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 Ratmir Mashezov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniil Kudryavtsev after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Rodion Konstantinov is on it.
In brief
Looking aheadNart take on the side everybody is chasing
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Amir Djumaev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rodion Konstantinov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nart the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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. 7.82, and 2 involvements.
Magomednabi Yagjaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev 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.
Position 14, 23 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Djumaev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nart can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Rodion Konstantinov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ratmir Mashezov 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.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Daniil Kudryavtsev kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart 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 Amir Djumaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniil Kudryavtsev after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Nart can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rodion Konstantinov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nart the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Magomednabi Yagjaev 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Amir Djumaev 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 manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rodion Konstantinov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Druzhba in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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 Nart, and it is not being withdrawn.
Magomednabi Yagjaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ratmir Mashezov 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 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 dugout12 Nov 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Daniil Kudryavtsev left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Magomednabi Yagjaev is on it.
Magomednabi Yagjaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Amir Djumaev 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Magomednabi Yagjaev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nart needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nart this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Amir Djumaev 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nart, another week without a signature from Rodion Konstantinov.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
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 Daniil Kudryavtsev 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 Rodion Konstantinov 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rodion Konstantinov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nart the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ratmir Mashezov 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.
He is 23 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.
Alexandr Olenev 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 Amir Djumaev 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Nart told Artem Smoroda something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Nart 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nart has been clear about where Nikita Zavjalov stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alexandr Olenev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nart needing him to play as if none of it matters.