Marked for Vikenty Schipachev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 13 in, 0 out at Avangard
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Everything agreed with Yenisey, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torpedo Moscow have kept their man, and Avangard go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad14 Sep 2026
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 dugout14 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yegor Yunusov, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torpedo Miass have kept their man, and Avangard go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Daniil Sedov gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A loan move for Alexey Koltakov is in the works
Avangard have made the call to Torpedo Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Daniil Sedov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Avangard 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.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alexey Sukharev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Avangard needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Denis Traigel. Avangard will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Avangard has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup progress for Avangard
A 2‑0 win over Strogino, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Avangard
Danila Knyazev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Torpedo Miass left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
He is 22 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.