Marked for Ivan Tolkachev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Yuriy Lovets
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yuriy Lovets will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Arsenal Dzerzhinsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Denis Polyakov 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yuriy Lovets, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Vasiljev 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Dmitriy Lutik 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.
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 Arsenal Dzerzhinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sergey Aidarov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
The afternoon belonged to Brian Iloski
7.78, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Yuriy Lovets knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yuriy Lovets trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Brian Iloski finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Arsenal Dzerzhinsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Sergey Sazonchik 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolay Sotnikov 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.
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Dzerzhinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Aug 2026
Only the photograph left for Yuriy Lovets
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yuriy Lovets will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Arsenal Dzerzhinsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Isloch, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 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 Arsenal Dzerzhinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Dzerzhinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 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 Arsenal Dzerzhinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ivan Tolkachev 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Nikolay Sotnikov 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
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
“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 Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Denis Polyakov and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 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 Arsenal Dzerzhinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Andrey Zaleskiy
“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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Slavia Mozyr left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Nikolay Sotnikov 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.