33 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Veles people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matvey Zakharzhevskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Veles the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dmitry Sergeev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
“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 The request is on a desk at Veles, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Veles know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Veles will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Dmitry Sadov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody at Veles will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Veles will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Veles they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
33 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
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. Veles will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Veles 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 Veles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Veles, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Veles know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ilja Kuptsov is on it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Veles they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Veles will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
33 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matvey Zakharzhevskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Veles 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 Veles 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Karim Giraev
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Karim Giraev has come out of that comparison in the side, and Veles have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Oleg Smirnov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Veles, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Veles know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Dmitry Sadov
Dmitry Sadov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody at Veles will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Veles, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Muslim Bammatgereev may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Veles is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Dmitry Sadov 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
A mark of 7.84, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Yuri Lukin kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
30 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Veles they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veles 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: Muslim Bammatgereev. 1‑0 against Textilschik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Yuri Lukin on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Veles can pretend not to have heard.
Dmitry Sergeev 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 pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Yuri Lukin kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Yuri Lukin kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oleg Smirnov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Veles the goodbyes have quietly begun.
7.82, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Dmitry Sadov 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.
Leningradets next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Yury Zavezen wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Yury Zavezen found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Mashuk went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matvey Zakharzhevskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Veles 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 Veles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Marked 8.04 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Yuri Lukin on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Veles can pretend not to have heard.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Yury Zavezen is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Veles now.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Yuri Lukin chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Dmitry Sadov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Half the programme played, position 2, 17 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Yuri Lukin could afford to be generous.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Zakhar Tarasenko was the best thing in any of them.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oleg Smirnov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Veles the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dmitry Sadov 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Ishkhan Geloyan in the middle of it, and Dinamo Moscow 2 unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Veles can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Veles until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matvey Zakharzhevskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Veles the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal that would have taken Alexandr Krasnopevtsev to Kosmos has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Veles with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Veles told Vladislav Galkin something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Luki-Energiya waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Veles is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Veles, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Textilschik made Veles work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Alexandr Shubin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Vladislav Galkin has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Yuri Lukin kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Strogino waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Veles is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Dmitry Sadov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Veles has been clear about where Vladislav Galkin stands, which is more than many ever get.
6 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Veles can pretend not to have heard.
Dmitry Sadov 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 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veles 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Yuri Lukin was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Veles dressing room was either.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Vladislav Galkin may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Alania defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Leningradets in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at Veles is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Dmitry Sadov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yuriy Ryazantsev 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. Vadim Bystrov 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mark Goncharov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Denis Martynov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
12 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Kirill Korolkov’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Yuri Lukin, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.