Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason SKA Khabarovsk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at SKA Khabarovsk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SKA Khabarovsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SKA Khabarovsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
25 appearances at Chaika and the goals have stopped going in. SKA Khabarovsk lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at SKA Khabarovsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sam Mather 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 men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Ruslan Fischenko is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jacobo Alcalde signs something — a contract at SKA Khabarovsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutDenis Fomin asks for a word with the manager
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. SKA Khabarovsk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at SKA Khabarovsk is running low.
Leon Musaev 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Kamran Aliev 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 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 Stepan Glotov is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at SKA Khabarovsk. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 SKA Khabarovsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SKA Khabarovsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Leon Musaev 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 Kamran Aliev 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kamran Aliev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SKA Khabarovsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SKA Khabarovsk can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Bragin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SKA Khabarovsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sam Mather was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nichita Moțpan 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.
Something was said to Sule John and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at SKA Khabarovsk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 SKA Khabarovsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at SKA Khabarovsk can tell you which week it ends in.
25 appearances at Chaika and the goals have stopped going in. SKA Khabarovsk lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at SKA Khabarovsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kamran Aliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at SKA Khabarovsk is running low.
Leon Musaev 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Kamran Aliev 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 done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one SKA Khabarovsk will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Oleg Kozhemyakin'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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at SKA Khabarovsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Neftekhimik next, and one man in the SKA Khabarovsk dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SKA Khabarovsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 16 and 27 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yaroslav Grebenkin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SKA Khabarovsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
4 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.
Giacomo Volpe 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.
15 clean sheets from 24 appearances at Chaika. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Sam Mather 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 long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and SKA Khabarovsk now know that too.
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 offer from Fjolnir for Jacobo Alcalde 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SKA Khabarovsk can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Bragin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around SKA Khabarovsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SKA Khabarovsk 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 Kamran Aliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
23 appearances at Chaika and the goals have stopped going in. SKA Khabarovsk lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. SKA Khabarovsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what SKA Khabarovsk can pretend not to have heard.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thomas Pledl and SKA Khabarovsk agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at SKA Khabarovsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
SKA Khabarovsk asked and Cukaricki said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
Loan watchMikhail Shtepa’s loan is measured in nothing happening
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. SKA Khabarovsk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Kvant for Yegor Noskov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Leon Musaev 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at SKA Khabarovsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sam Mather 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.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. SKA Khabarovsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 7.97 for the rest of it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ruslan Fischenko scored, was marked 7.83, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around SKA Khabarovsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at SKA Khabarovsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamran Aliev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tyumen have kept their man, and SKA Khabarovsk go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 SKA Khabarovsk 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 words a physio says slowly. 38 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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 SKA Khabarovsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cukaricki keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Vladislav Masternoy 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at SKA Khabarovsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamran Aliev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and SKA Khabarovsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. SKA Khabarovsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
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.
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at SKA Khabarovsk can tell you which week it ends in.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. SKA Khabarovsk have done the hard part with Cukaricki, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at SKA Khabarovsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at SKA Khabarovsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamran Aliev 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.
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. SKA Khabarovsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sevastopol waiting with a shirt. Nobody at SKA Khabarovsk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. SKA Khabarovsk will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The deal with Nizhniy Novgorod 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.
Leon Musaev 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.
In brief
SquadA move Noah Dybvik would have made for nothing
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. SKA Khabarovsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
6 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.
Leon Musaev 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 Kamran Aliev 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.
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SKA Khabarovsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SKA Khabarovsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Kamran Aliev 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.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SKA Khabarovsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
4 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.
Leon Musaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Kamran Aliev 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Giacomo Volpe
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. SKA Khabarovsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Savely Ogarev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at SKA Khabarovsk is running low.
“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 SKA Khabarovsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jordi Tur has agreed terms with Sokol for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at SKA Khabarovsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ilja Zhbanov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means SKA Khabarovsk have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at SKA Khabarovsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamran Aliev 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at SKA Khabarovsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Vladislav Masternoy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at SKA Khabarovsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamran Aliev 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.
“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
Loan watchMikhail Shtepa’s loan is measured in nothing happening
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. SKA Khabarovsk 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 SKA Khabarovsk can pretend not to have heard.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at SKA Khabarovsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamran Aliev 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: 16. 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.
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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Savely Ogarev chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutGiacomo Volpe knocks on the manager's door
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. SKA Khabarovsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SKA Khabarovsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at SKA Khabarovsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamran Aliev 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.
Half the programme played, position 13, 17 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Savely Ogarev on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutSam Mather asks for a word with the manager
Player ratingsThomas Pledl beats them one at a time
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. SKA Khabarovsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 SKA Khabarovsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Leon Musaev 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 Kamran Aliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Nichita Moțpan is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at SKA Khabarovsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Leon Musaev 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 Kamran Aliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
14 matches without a win, and then this, against Spartak Kostroma. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SKA Khabarovsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at SKA Khabarovsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamran Aliev 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 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Matías Batule 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.
A 1‑0 win over Spartak Kostroma, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.” Savely Ogarev kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nichita Moțpan 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 Kamran Aliev 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.
4 clean sheets from 7 appearances at Chaika. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Yaroslav Grebenkin has written the date down.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. SKA Khabarovsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SKA Khabarovsk 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; SKA Khabarovsk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Kamran Aliev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at SKA Khabarovsk, another week without a signature from Leon Musaev.
Position 16 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” SKA Khabarovsk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Kamran Aliev 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at SKA Khabarovsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kamran Aliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
20 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Savely Ogarev to a room that had heard them before.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matías Batule did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ruslan Fischenko scored, was marked 7.73, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SKA Khabarovsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Kamran Aliev 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Ural had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SKA Khabarovsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Leon Musaev 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Kamran Aliev 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 team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Ural.
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 Stepan Glotov is on it.
Ural next, and one man in the SKA Khabarovsk dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at SKA Khabarovsk would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Uralets-TS go through and SKA Khabarovsk go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Matteo Voltolini: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Stepan Glotov, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.85
A mark of 7.85 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.
At 20 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.
“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; SKA Khabarovsk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Leon Musaev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SKA Khabarovsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Kamran Aliev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
20 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.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rubin keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Vladislav Masternoy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at SKA Khabarovsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamran Aliev 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.
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon SKA Khabarovsk had all but put away. Volga will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Savely Ogarev after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 13 gone
That is the business done at SKA Khabarovsk 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Kamran Aliev 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.
SKA Khabarovsk asked and Rostov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Mehdi Bounou 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.
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon SKA Khabarovsk had all but put away. KAMAZ will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Kamran Aliev
“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 SKA Khabarovsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Giacomo Volpe 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at SKA Khabarovsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamran Aliev 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Oleg Kozhemyakin is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. SKA Khabarovsk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ruslan Fischenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Mehdi Bounou is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Makhachkala have kept their man, and SKA Khabarovsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
18 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Savely Ogarev after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sam Mather has, at SKA Khabarovsk, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. SKA Khabarovsk will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at SKA Khabarovsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kamran Aliev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MFK Ruzomberok have kept their man, and SKA Khabarovsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Leon Musaev has, at SKA Khabarovsk, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The deal with Mitre 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.
Leon Musaev 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 Kamran Aliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 87, against Chaika, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. SKA Khabarovsk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Everything agreed with another club, 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 SKA Khabarovsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Dmitry Starodub has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means SKA Khabarovsk have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Viktor Zheleznov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gennady Klimov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Kirill Lapin 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. Bogdan Lisitsin is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vladislav Masternoy and SKA Khabarovsk agree another 3 years.
Vladislav Masternoy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Kamran Aliev 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.
SKA Khabarovsk asked and Radnicki Nis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at SKA Khabarovsk, another week without a signature from Stepan Glotov.
21 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.