Marked for Dmitry Medvedev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2027
72 days out for Dmitry Medvedev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Irtysh will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom24 May 2027
Pressure builds in the Irtysh boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad24 May 2027
Words exchanged at Irtysh
Alexandr Smirnov 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Irtysh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ezekiel Antony 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.
Boardroom24 May 2027
Irtysh counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Irtysh now.
The dugout24 May 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 May 2027
79 days out for Dmitry Medvedev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Irtysh will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad17 May 2027
A row about effort at Irtysh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ezekiel Antony was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom17 May 2027
Wages eat 144% of everything Irtysh earn
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 dugout17 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danil Shageev, and the manager let it.
Squad17 May 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Irtysh will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Market17 May 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Irtysh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 May 2027
86 days out for Dmitry Medvedev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Irtysh will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad10 May 2027
A row about effort at Irtysh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roman Yanushkovskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 May 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market10 May 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout10 May 2027
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.
Market10 May 2027
The name of Alexandr Smirnov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Irtysh say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 May 2027
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.
Squad3 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad3 May 2027
Roman Yanushkovskiy 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 dugout3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Belyaev, and the manager let it.
The dugout3 May 2027
Alexandr Smirnov loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Alexandr Smirnov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Market3 May 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
A fracture rules Dmitry Medvedev out for 100 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Irtysh will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
Pressure builds in the Irtysh boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Irtysh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ezekiel Antony 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Irtysh
Kirill Grishin 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.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
Belts tighten at Irtysh
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2027
107 days out for Dmitry Medvedev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Irtysh will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Irtysh
Alexandr Smirnov 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Roman Yanushkovskiy 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Irtysh
Alexandr Smirnov 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.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Irtysh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roman Yanushkovskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“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.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
105% of the income goes out in wages at Irtysh
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.
Market22 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Roman Yanushkovskiy’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Irtysh
Alexandr Smirnov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ezekiel Antony 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Mark Isong
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad28 Sep 2026
16 new faces, and Irtysh are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Dmitriy Borovikov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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 Vitaly Ustinov is on it.
Market28 Sep 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Roman Yanushkovskiy signs something — a contract at Irtysh or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Match28 Sep 2026
Irtysh in the hunt for Europe
Position 5, 10 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Sep 2026
Irtysh up to position 3
10 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irtysh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ezekiel Antony 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Amirkhan Temukov. 1‑0 against Murom, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match21 Sep 2026
Halfway: Irtysh sit in position 3
10 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aidyn Mirzoev, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.87 on the card, and the Irtysh support went home talking about one name.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Dmitriy Borovikov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Irtysh until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Metallurg wanted more than $39.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Match12 Sep 2026
Irtysh come up short against Kuban
Kuban left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
58 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Dmitriy Borovikov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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 Nikita Zhustjev is on it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Aidyn Mirzoev asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vladislav Poletaev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.