“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 The request is on a desk at Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $2.9M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Zenit Penza could ask drops and the wages Svetozar Evtov can ask rise.
The mood at Zenit Penza has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom13 May 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Zenit Penza
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Position 13 and 21 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zenit Penza can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Farkas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dominik Farkas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Luka Zhuravlev is on it.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zenit Penza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yaroslav Kolesnichenko and Zenit Penza agree another 4 years.
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.
Boardroom6 May 2030
174% of the income goes out in wages at Zenit Penza
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.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Nobody at Zenit Penza 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.
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Evgeny Yegorov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The mood at Zenit Penza has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom15 Apr 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Zenit Penza
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Position 13 and 21 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Ilja Medvedev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Evgeny Yegorov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Zenit Penza 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dominik Farkas 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 money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Evgeny Yegorov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Marcus Søberg falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
“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; Zenit Penza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zenit Penza, another week without a signature from Evgeny Yegorov.
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 Evgeny Yegorov is on it.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Artiom Zabun was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
In brief
The dugoutLuka Zhuravlev asks for a word with the manager
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $3.0M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zenit Penza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dominik Farkas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zenit Penza is running low.
Position 13 and 21 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Zenit Penza 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.
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nikolay Aslanyan and Zenit Penza agree another 3 years.
Evgeny Yegorov 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.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Farkas 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.
Boardroom11 Mar 2030
211% of the income goes out in wages at Zenit Penza
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zenit Penza, another week without a signature from Svetozar Evtov.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zenit Penza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zenit Penza can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Zenit Penza asked and Volna said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Ilja Medvedev 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.
Zenit Penza asked and Chernomorets said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
In brief
Player ratingsThe game went through Ilja Medvedev — 7.61
The mood at Zenit Penza has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zenit Penza is running low.
Position 13 and 21 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The deal with Khimik is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Zenit Penza asked and Orenburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zenit Penza can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dominik Farkas did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Zenit Penza asked and Leningradets said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zenit Penza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings4 Feb 2030
Dominik Farkas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Farkas 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zenit Penza is running low.
Position 13 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zenit Penza can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings21 Jan 2030
Dominik Farkas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Nikolay Aslanyan 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.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza 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.
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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zenit Penza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yaroslav Kolesnichenko provided it, and the 8.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Evgeny Yegorov 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 shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Farkas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Ilja Medvedev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
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 Dominik Farkas is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Evgeny Yegorov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zenit Penza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Zenit Penza. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The mood at Zenit Penza has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zenit Penza is running low.
Position 14 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
Evgeny Yegorov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Farkas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
SKA Khabarovsk 2 left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against SKA Khabarovsk 2.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It is 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nikolay Aslanyan 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 gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $3.0M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
“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; Zenit Penza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom26 Nov 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Zenit Penza
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
0‑3 to Strogino, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zenit Penza can pretend not to have heard.
Evgeny Yegorov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Farkas 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.52, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“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 Zenit Penza know it.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Evgeny Yegorov is on it.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dominik Farkas provided it, and the 9.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.90, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Dominik Farkas 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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Dinamo Vladivostok were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Position 15 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Dominik Farkas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.68
A mark of 7.68 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
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.
Something was said to Nikolay Aslanyan and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Zenit Penza will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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 Dominik Farkas is on it.
Arsenal Tula 2 next, and one man in the Zenit Penza dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Evgeny Yegorov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Farkas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
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 Evgeny Yegorov is on 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 Zenit Penza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Zenit Penza has been clear about where Timur Zainullin stands, which is more than many ever get.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Zenit Penza would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zenit Penza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
CSKA Moscow go through and Zenit Penza go home, 0‑7 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
0-7. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Match3 Oct 2029
Nobody could stop scoring
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zenit Penza and CSKA Moscow in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Ilja Medvedev 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Ilja Medvedev 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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Kvant the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Zenit Penza will enjoy reviewing.
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Evgeny Yegorov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Farkas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zenit Penza and Ryazan in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 7 times, 5 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 12 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Neftyanik have kept their man, and Zenit Penza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $2.9M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Zenit Penza 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout3 Sep 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zenit Penza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Zenit Penza had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Bryansk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
146% of the income goes out in wages at Zenit Penza
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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zenit Penza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dominik Farkas did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Zenit Penza and Dinamo Bryansk, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Dominik Farkas 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 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 8 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Neftyanik is saying, and nobody at Zenit Penza is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Farkas 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikita Postnikov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zenit Penza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Zenit Penza have done the hard part with Dinamo Bryansk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KAMAZ have kept their man, and Zenit Penza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadEvgeny Yegorov falls out with a teammate over standards
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov 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.
The offer from Dinamo Makhachkala for Nikita Postnikov 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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zenit Penza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Khimik is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Zenit Penza had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Torpedo Miass, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
8 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Metallurg have kept their man, and Zenit Penza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadDominik Farkas falls out with a teammate over standards
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
The deal with Khimik is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Zenit Penza
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Khimik have kept their man, and Zenit Penza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kirill Guskov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom9 Jul 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Zenit Penza
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Alania keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Nikolay Aslanyan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zenit Penza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Everything agreed with Spartak Tambov, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Metallurg keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Evgeny Yegorov 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Zenit Penza have done the hard part with Dinamo Bryansk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Zenit Penza had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo St Petersburg, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rodina have kept their man, and Zenit Penza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Gleb Geikin
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Zenit Penza have done the hard part with Dinamo Bryansk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Nikita Postnikov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zenit Penza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zenit Penza is running low.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zenit Penza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Farkas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $3.0M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luka Sidorenko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Zenit Penza expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Gleb Geikin.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Şerefhan Sağlık 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zenit Penza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Evgeny Yegorov 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.
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.
“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 Zenit Penza know it.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zenit Penza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Gleb Geikin
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zenit Penza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Position 13 and 22 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Gleb Geikin's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Zenit Penza expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Gleb Geikin.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Farkas 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zenit Penza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Zenit Penza expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Gleb Geikin.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov 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.
Elias Sormunen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zenit Penza, another week without a signature from Nikita Postnikov.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikita Postnikov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Zenit Penza
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zenit Penza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Zenit Penza expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Gleb Geikin.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Position 13 and 22 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $3.1M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Artiom Zabun signs something — a contract at Zenit Penza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Zenit Penza could ask drops and the wages Nikita Postnikov can ask rise.
In brief
The dugoutElias Sormunen asks for a word with the manager
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Nikolay Aslanyan 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 shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Marcus Søberg was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Zenit Penza than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Dominik Farkas 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.
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. Zenit Penza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zenit Penza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zenit Penza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Evgeny Yegorov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Farkas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Zenit Penza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Position 13 and 22 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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 Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $3.2M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
“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 Zenit Penza know it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Aleksey Lermontov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov 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.
0‑3 against Ryazan, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Zenit Penza close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Gleb Geikin is a Zenit Penza player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Evgeny Yegorov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Farkas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 204% of everything Zenit Penza earn
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zenit Penza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Kirov have kept their man, and Zenit Penza go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Zenit Penza told Nikolay Aslanyan something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zenit Penza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Zenit Penza and Orel, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Zenit Penza asked and Dinamo Kirov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dominik Farkas did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Dominik Farkas has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The mood at Zenit Penza has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zenit Penza is running low.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zenit Penza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Dominik Farkas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
12 combined actions and 6.86. 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.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Zenit Penza know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Evgeny Yegorov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Farkas 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
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.
Nikolay Aslanyan 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 manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Aleksey Lermontov left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zenit Penza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
In brief
The dugoutDominik Farkas asks for a word with the manager
Stanislav Berezhnoy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zenit Penza is running low.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zenit Penza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Evgeny Yegorov 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Farkas is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zenit Penza, another week without a signature from Nikita Postnikov.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikita Postnikov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Zenit Penza could ask drops and the wages Denis Perfilov can ask rise.
1‑4 to Dinamo Bryansk, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Position 13 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.80 for the rest of it.
Nikolay Aslanyan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Denis Perfilov had Zenit Penza level again within 2 minutes, and Dinamo Bryansk never got to play with a lead at all.
6 goals in one match, Artiom Zabun on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Zenit Penza and SKA Khabarovsk 2.
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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksey Lermontov after 1‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Beaten 5 times, 2 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Evgeny Yegorov 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 shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
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.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
289% of the income goes out in wages at Zenit Penza
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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Zenit Penza
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Perfilov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zenit Penza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Denis Perfilov has agreed terms with Torpedo Moscow for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zenit Penza and Salyut in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Stepan Burganov 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.
In brief
Player ratingsArtiom Zabun was on a different afternoon to everybody else
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
“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 Zenit Penza know it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Artiom Zabun signs something — a contract at Zenit Penza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Farkas 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. Marcus Søberg has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 7.87, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Zenit Penza told Stanislav Berezhnoy something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
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.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Dominik Farkas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
Nobody left the Zenit Penza dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Aleksey Lermontov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 3 saves does not settle it either way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Farkas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Dominik Farkas has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Stepan Burganov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Zenit Penza needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Zenit Penza would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Şerefhan Sağlık trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Stanislav Berezhnoy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Aleksey Lermontov left the room before anybody could ask which.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dylan Caruana has his answer from Zenit Penza; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad9 Oct 2028
A Zenit Penza teenager takes the young player award
Dominik Farkas is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Rotor 2 will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Zenit Penza were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
6 goals in one match, Dominik Farkas on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Zenit Penza and Rotor 2.
Evgeny Yegorov 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.
19 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Avangard were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Two goals and a mark of 8.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Nikita Postnikov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Dominik Farkas 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.
19 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zenit Penza 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 Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksey Lermontov after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Zenit Penza close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 19 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Yegor Tinyakov 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.
Evgeny Yegorov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Postnikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Zenit Penza know it.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Zenit Penza were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
He is 18, and nobody at Zenit Penza signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
18 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The terraces4 Sep 2028
The mood at Zenit Penza has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zenit Penza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.60 for the rest of it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Zenit Penza have done the hard part with Irkutsk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
17 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Zenit Penza asked and Kuban said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The 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.
16 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
Volga go through and Zenit Penza go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zenit Penza can pretend not to have heard.
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. 55 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The 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.
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zenit Penza has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces7 Aug 2028
The mood at Zenit Penza has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zenit Penza can pretend not to have heard.
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Up for the corner, and David Lukanov delivers — 7.61
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. David Lukanov scored, was marked 7.61, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nikolay Aslanyan and Zenit Penza agree another 4 years.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov 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.
0‑4 against Spartak Tambov, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Zenit Penza asked and Sevastopol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Postnikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
BoardroomThe borrowing at Zenit Penza reaches $3.0M
12 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 16 actions, 6.81, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Nikita Postnikov 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.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sokol is saying, and nobody at Zenit Penza is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Zenit Penza
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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zenit Penza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Zenit Penza
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Zenit Penza had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Alania, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Evgeny Yegorov 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.
Zenit Penza asked and Saturn said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dominik Farkas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 148% of everything Zenit Penza earn
Transfer targetsA loan move for Aslan Aushev is in the works
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zenit Penza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zenit Penza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zenit Penza can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zenit Penza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Metallurg keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Nikita Postnikov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeny Yegorov 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.