46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tyumen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Tyumen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alexandr Bem 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Vitaly Shitov 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.
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.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tyumen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tyumen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tyumen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Shitov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I watch every Tyumen game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Strogino runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Dmitriev signs something — a contract at Tyumen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Player ratingsIvan Pyatkin spends the afternoon fouling
Vitaly Shitov 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Alexandr Bem 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.
“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 Tyumen, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Alexandr Bem was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Vitaly Shitov 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Mashuk? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.