Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Konstantin Savichev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alexandr Gagloev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Shakhter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Savkiv 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 Stanislav Samoilov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Shakhter 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.
Konstantin Savichev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Shakhter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Savkiv 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 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Älikhan Israilov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Shakhter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konstantin Savichev 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.
Konstantin Savichev 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.
$9.0K was the most the club would pay and Aktobe were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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. Shakhter will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
That is the business done at Shakhter 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.
$9.0K on the table at Aktobe. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Bohdan Savkiv 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Shakhter, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
6 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.
The fee is $220.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Taraz drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Alexandr Gagloev 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.
Stanislav Samoilov was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $220.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Shakhter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konstantin Savichev 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Vladyslav Naumets has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Shakhter have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Shakhter asked and Andijon said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer from Tobol for Aidos Tättibaev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Taraz have accepted the money. What Shakhter do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atlético Tucumán is saying, and nobody at Shakhter is enjoying the guessing.
The offer went to Kairat this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Alexandr Gagloev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Shakhter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konstantin Savichev 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.
Shakhter asked and Crvena Zvezda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ordabasy go through and Shakhter go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Shakhter had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Turan Tovuz, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Konstantin Savichev 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 Bohdan Savkiv was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Navbahor have kept their man, and Shakhter go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Igor' Shatskii and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Astana have kept their man, and Shakhter go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Shakhter know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
A loan enquiry to Turan Tovuz: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Shakhter are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mikhail Gabyshev may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Two goals and a mark of 8.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter 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. Andijon have kept their man, and Shakhter go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Talgat Logvinenko 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. Maxim Abiken 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. Baktiyor Postnikov 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Talgat Kuat is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Shakhter know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Igor' Shatskii 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Bohdan Savkiv 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kokand 1912 have kept their man, and Shakhter go back to a list with one name crossed off it.