“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Saleh Allamine has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saleh Allamine will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torpedo Moscow 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Mario Ćurić 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Vasiljev 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.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Torpedo Moscow rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Dinamo Makhachkala had no answer to any 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 3‑2 win over Dinamo Makhachkala, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
Mario Ćurić 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Artem Tokarev is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Adrián Acevedo is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexey Kashtanov signs something — a contract at Torpedo Moscow or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Dmitry Tsypchenko was one of the reasons people came, and $1.6M does not replace that by itself.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Anzor Amiraliev has just signed for Torpedo Moscow, and for once the answer mattered.
Lokomotiv Moscow paid $1.6M and Torpedo Moscow took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“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 Torpedo Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Denis Davydov has just signed for Torpedo Moscow, and for once the answer mattered.
Mario Ćurić 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 terraces7 Aug 2028
Torpedo Moscow spend $700.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $700.0K for Ivan Sirotkin, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Daniil Shamkin has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
He is 20, and nobody at Torpedo Moscow signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Torpedo Moscow has been clear about where Alexandr Lomakin stands, which is more than many ever get.
The offer from Lokomotiv Moscow for Dmitry Tsypchenko 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Torpedo Moscow they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Karl Liivak has agreed terms with Yenisey 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Alexey Kashtanov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Torpedo Moscow and Ural.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Artur Galoyan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ilja Berkovskiy and Torpedo Moscow agree another 4 years.
Mario Ćurić 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Artem Tokarev is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Galoyan 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 touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Artem Tokarev has his answer from Torpedo Moscow; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Torpedo Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 29 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Torpedo Moscow
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Match15 Jul 2028
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Torpedo Moscow. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vsevolod Zheleznov 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. Anatoly Tsvetkov 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Mario Ćurić 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Daniil Shamkin has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dmitry Tsypchenko signs something — a contract at Torpedo Moscow or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
$5.5M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The offer from Rubin for Artur Galoyan 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Alesson was one of the reasons people came, and $5.5M does not replace that by itself.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torpedo Moscow is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
In brief
The terracesThe stands have heard the Ilja Berkovskiy talk too
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Denis Traigel is living that version at Torpedo Moscow, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Rubin Yalta will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Alexandr Smirnov has pre-agreed a move to Torpedo Moscow, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
7 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.
Alesson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody at Torpedo Moscow will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Alexey Pogudin is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Torpedo Moscow would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow 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.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Torpedo Moscow will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brian Pallarés will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torpedo Moscow 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Torpedo Moscow will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Alesson 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Artur Galoyan 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Galoyan 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.
Position 2, 67 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom8 May 2028
An order from above at Torpedo Moscow: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torpedo Moscow is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kirill Gotsuk and Torpedo Moscow agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Alesson 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Torpedo Moscow will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Alesson 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Artur Galoyan 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Galoyan 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dmitry Tsypchenko signs something — a contract at Torpedo Moscow or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 2, 67 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torpedo Moscow 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.
Kirill Gotsuk 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alesson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The loan was meant to give him football. 4 games and 0 goals later he is back at Torpedo Moscow no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
Alesson 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.
“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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Borodin 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Torpedo Moscow 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 Torpedo Moscow 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.
Nobody at Torpedo Moscow will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Alesson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexey Kashtanov, and the manager let it.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Borodin 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 watch every Torpedo Moscow game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dinamo Bucharest runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexandr Yushin and Torpedo Moscow agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Torpedo Moscow game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dinamo Makhachkala runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
“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 Torpedo Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Milan Majstorović 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces21 Feb 2028
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 5 of the 25 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torpedo Moscow is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Rostislav Soldatenko 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 Feb 2028
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Galoyan 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 hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Uroš Zdjelarić did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torpedo Moscow is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer from Krylya Sovetov for José Luis García 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Milan Majstorović 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Tsypchenko 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: Milan Majstorović. 2‑1 against Neftekhimik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 Torpedo Moscow, and 4 appearances in 23 say he has earned the hearing.
At 22 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.
8.72. 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.
Add another name to the list: Krylya Sovetov have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about José Luis García. The answer from Torpedo Moscow has not changed — yet.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Dmitry Tsypchenko.
Alesson 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Artur Galoyan 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Artur Galoyan. 1‑0 against Spartak Kostroma, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Torpedo Moscow has been clear about where Alexandr Lomakin stands, which is more than many ever get.
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulrahman Al-Hurayb will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torpedo Moscow 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Tsypchenko 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.
Position 2, 54 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The offer from Estrela da Amadora for Alesson 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Torpedo Moscow they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Alesson 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.
Marked 8.21 — 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Galoyan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Torpedo Moscow, and 4 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Moscow will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Torpedo Moscow have had the benefit of it.
Mario Ćurić 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 Jan 2028
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Tsypchenko is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Torpedo Moscow, and 8 appearances in 26 say he has earned the hearing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Torpedo Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Moscow will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces27 Dec 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 26 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torpedo Moscow is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Milan Majstorović 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Torpedo Moscow 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Galoyan 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 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Uroš Zdjelarić 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.
Marked 8.81 — 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.
Alesson 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.
22 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
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. Torpedo Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torpedo Moscow is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Tsypchenko 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 watch every Torpedo Moscow game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dinamo Bucharest runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Torpedo Moscow they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Alesson 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Artur Galoyan 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.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Alesson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. 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.
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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Uroš Zdjelarić obliged against Akron. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Torpedo Moscow.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Torpedo Moscow 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Galoyan 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 22 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.
8.68. 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Alexey Kashtanov will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Torpedo Moscow escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Moscow 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Torpedo Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Gerasimov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torpedo Moscow 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Galoyan 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: Ilja Berkovskiy. 1‑0 against Akron, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I did not go to Dinamo Bucharest to sit and watch. I want to come back to Torpedo Moscow and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
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.
“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 Torpedo Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulrahman Al-Hurayb will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torpedo Moscow 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.
Alesson 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.
Match30 Oct 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Torpedo Moscow. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
“I watch every Torpedo Moscow game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dinamo Makhachkala runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Alesson at his very best
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Moscow will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torpedo Moscow is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Tsypchenko 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.
Match23 Oct 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Torpedo Moscow. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Moscow will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Alesson 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Artur Galoyan. 2‑1 against Sokol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Alesson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Torpedo Moscow know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Uroš Zdjelarić obliged against Orel. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Torpedo Moscow.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Moscow will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torpedo Moscow is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Galoyan 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 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Uroš Zdjelarić 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ilja Berkovskiy. 1‑0 against Neftekhimik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Ilja Berkovskiy at his very best
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Spartak Kostroma the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Torpedo Moscow will enjoy reviewing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Moscow will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Evgeny Shlyakov has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kirill Gotsuk and Torpedo Moscow agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Milan Majstorović 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Artur Galoyan 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.
Position 1, 22 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Evgeny Shlyakov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torpedo Moscow the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Artur Galoyan 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 finished 3‑2, and it was Alexey Kashtanov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Torpedo Moscow.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Tsypchenko 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 22 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Moscow will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces20 Sep 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 28 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Alesson 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Artur Galoyan 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 touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torpedo Moscow is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Tsypchenko 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.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Alesson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Moscow will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexey Kashtanov provided it, and the 8.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
Alesson 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.
22 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“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 Torpedo Moscow, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Torpedo Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Torpedo Moscow know 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ilja Berkovskiy. 2‑1 against Fakel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Ilja Berkovskiy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.68. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Ilja Berkovskiy will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Torpedo Moscow escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The offer from Ordabasy for Alexandr Chupaev 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 Torpedo Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
Alesson 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The phone has started ringing about Alexandr Chupaev again, and this time the name on the line is Naftan. Torpedo Moscow are listening politely and promising nothing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Gerasimov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torpedo Moscow 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
22 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Tsypchenko 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Moscow will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
He is going to Lokomotiv Moscow, the club has $1.9M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Lokomotiv Moscow paid $1.9M and Torpedo Moscow took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Kirill Gotsuk 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.
Artur Galoyan 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Moscow will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Tsypchenko 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 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Alexandr Chupaev 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 123 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Two goals and a mark of 8.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
16 combined actions and 7.94. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Alesson 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.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Torpedo Moscow 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
10 academy players handed senior numbers at Torpedo Moscow
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
20 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Alesson 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 easiest signature of my career.” Alexandr Chupaev and Torpedo Moscow agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
7 new faces, and Torpedo Moscow are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“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 Torpedo Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Sokol for Enzo Lemos 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Moscow 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
32 games, 6 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Torpedo Moscow now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Mikhail Volkov has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
In brief
SquadWords at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Vince Gino Dekker has left for Neftekhimik in a $170.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Borodin 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 offer from Akhmat Grozny for Dmitry Tsypchenko 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Artem Gerasimov has agreed terms with Dinamo Makhachkala for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Gerasimov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torpedo Moscow the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Milan Majstorović is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Rostislav Soldatenko 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bojan Roganović commits to Torpedo Moscow for another 3 years.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Borodin 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Mario Ćurić'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 are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Torpedo Moscow will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Mario Ćurić 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bojan Roganović 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. 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.
Mario Ćurić 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.
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.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Mario Ćurić's mistake
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Rostislav Soldatenko 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.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Torpedo Moscow lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Mario Ćurić 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.
“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 Torpedo Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mario Ćurić 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.
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.
In brief
SquadBojan Roganović falls out with a teammate over standards
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ilja Berkovskiy and Torpedo Moscow agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Borodin 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.
In brief
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Mario Ćurić's mistake
Mario Ćurić 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.
“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; Torpedo Moscow are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bojan Roganović 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.
Anton Sinyak 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 Torpedo Moscow 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Borodin 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.
In brief
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Mario Ćurić's mistake
Two goals and a mark of 8.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kirill Gotsuk and Torpedo Moscow agree another 2 years.
Mario Ćurić 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.
Marked 4.12. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
“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 Torpedo Moscow, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.09 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The terraces1 Mar 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 31 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Borodin 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.
Vladislav Shitov had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Ural were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vladislav Shitov provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Kuban for Ignacio Lemmo 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.
Mario Ćurić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 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.
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Dmitry Pytlev has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Torpedo Moscow have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bojan Roganović 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.
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.
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.
It is the quietest kind of dressing-room problem and the one that lasts longest, because nobody has done anything anyone can be disciplined for. 2 players sit outside all 3 groups entirely, which is the detail that tends to matter.
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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Shinnik defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo Moscow can pretend not to have heard.
Kirill Gotsuk 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Torpedo Moscow, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo Moscow 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.” Torpedo Moscow have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rostislav Soldatenko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Torpedo Moscow know it.
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.
90 minutes played. Dmitry Tsypchenko found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Chernomorets went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dmitry Tsypchenko. 3‑2 against Chernomorets, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Vladislav Shitov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
8.17. 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.
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bojan Roganović 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.
Mario Ćurić 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Mario Ćurić 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.
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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 7.67 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Torpedo Moscow had the best player on the pitch.
Squad28 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Kirill Gotsuk'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.
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.
Kirill Gotsuk 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 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.
Rostislav Soldatenko 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Artem Gerasimov is living that version at Torpedo Moscow, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Torpedo Moscow told Dmitry Tsypchenko something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Torpedo Moscow who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Borodin 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mattia Ciancaglini has come out of that comparison in the side, and Torpedo Moscow have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Sokol defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Mario Ćurić 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.
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 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Marked 5.64. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Marked 5.71. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Vladislav Shitov scored in the 86th minute, Spartak Kostroma had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Torpedo Moscow took the lot.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Vladislav Shitov 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.
Mario Ćurić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Mattia Ciancaglini 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dmitry Tsypchenko. 2‑0 against Yenisey, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Marked 8.26. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Torpedo Moscow.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Borodin 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.
16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Moscow 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.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Alexandr Yushin is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable 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 Torpedo Moscow this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑1 to Ural, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Borodin 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 Dmitry Tsypchenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The terracesThe spotlight tightens on Daniil Utkin
Player ratingsAn afternoon Kirill Gotsuk will want back
Rostislav Soldatenko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 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.
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 goal that put KAMAZ ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Torpedo Moscow equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.