Marked for Luis Sandoval
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Nov 2033
The knee: Joan Chávez out for 119 days
119 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tyumen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market21 Nov 2033
Joan Chávez has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tyumen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 Nov 2033
A falling-out at Tyumen
Artem Rogov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Nov 2033
A row about effort at Tyumen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pavel Shakuro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom21 Nov 2033
Wages swallow 206% of the Tyumen income
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.
Squad21 Nov 2033
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Tyumen are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market21 Nov 2033
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout21 Nov 2033
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout21 Nov 2033
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 Vladlen Preobrazhensky is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Oct 2033
Luis Sandoval hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tyumen can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Oct 2033
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.
Squad31 Oct 2033
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Marjanov 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 dugout31 Oct 2033
“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.
Match29 Oct 2033
It needed Artem Rogov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Volgar, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout31 Oct 2033
The team sheet said everything about Finn Flanagan
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Finn Flanagan.
The dugout31 Oct 2033
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.
Boardroom31 Oct 2033
Tyumen have to sell first
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
The dugout31 Oct 2033
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Oct 2033
Joan Chávez hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tyumen can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Oct 2033
Joan Chávez has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tyumen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings24 Oct 2033
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Oct 2033
A falling-out at Tyumen
Artem Rogov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Oct 2033
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavel Shakuro 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.
Squad24 Oct 2033
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Tyumen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom24 Oct 2033
272% of the income goes out in wages at Tyumen
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 dugout24 Oct 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vadim Matveenko, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 Oct 2033
Artem Rogov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Sep 2033
Every point is an argument now for Tyumen
Position 8 and 11 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.
Market26 Sep 2033
Joan Chávez has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tyumen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market26 Sep 2033
Luis Sandoval hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tyumen can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Sep 2033
A falling-out at Tyumen
Artem Rogov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings26 Sep 2033
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Sep 2033
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavel Shakuro 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.
Boardroom26 Sep 2033
251% of the income goes out in wages at Tyumen
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.
Looking ahead26 Sep 2033
Tyumen face Sibir in the game that matters most
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
The dugout26 Sep 2033
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Sep 2033
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market12 Sep 2033
“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.
Boardroom12 Sep 2033
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Tyumen 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.
Boardroom12 Sep 2033
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Joan Chávez has agreed terms with Akron for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad12 Sep 2033
Tempers go at Tyumen
Artem Rogov 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.
Match10 Sep 2033
1‑3 to Dinamo Moscow 2, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad12 Sep 2033
A row about effort at Tyumen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pavel Shakuro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets12 Sep 2033
Tyumen asked and Kosmos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad12 Sep 2033
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
In brief
-
Match
The run is over for Tyumen
-
Boardroom
Tyumen are $4.8M in the red
-
Match
The half-term report on Tyumen
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market29 Aug 2033
“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.
Player ratings29 Aug 2033
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match27 Aug 2033
Tyumen make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Tyumen have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad29 Aug 2033
A falling-out at Tyumen
Pavel Shakuro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets29 Aug 2033
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 Aug 2033
Andrey Marjanov 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.
Boardroom29 Aug 2033
Wages swallow 225% of the Tyumen income
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.
Match27 Aug 2033
Tyumen get the job done against Volgar
A 2‑0 win over Volgar, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout29 Aug 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roman Mikheev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jul 2033
Dmitry Teryaev damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Market25 Jul 2033
Luis Sandoval hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tyumen can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets25 Jul 2033
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Krylya Sovetov is saying, and nobody at Tyumen is enjoying the guessing.
Squad25 Jul 2033
Tempers go at Tyumen
Vadim Matveenko 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.
Boardroom25 Jul 2033
Still nobody in the Tyumen dugout
10 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad25 Jul 2033
A row about effort at Tyumen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pavel Shakuro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match23 Jul 2033
Tyumen come up short against Veles
Veles left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings25 Jul 2033
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. 12 actions, 7.19, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout25 Jul 2033
“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
Uneasy
Squad27 Jun 2033
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tyumen will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market27 Jun 2033
“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.
Transfer targets27 Jun 2033
Everything agreed with Sibir, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The dugout27 Jun 2033
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad27 Jun 2033
A falling-out at Tyumen
Pavel Shakuro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets27 Jun 2033
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.
Squad27 Jun 2033
A row about effort at Tyumen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrey Marjanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad27 Jun 2033
No place for Kirill Tolstoy in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Tyumen are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market27 Jun 2033
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Jun 2033
“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.
Squad20 Jun 2033
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad20 Jun 2033
Words exchanged at Tyumen
Dmitry Teryaev 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.
Squad20 Jun 2033
Pavel Shakuro 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.
Transfer targets20 Jun 2033
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.
Squad20 Jun 2033
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Tyumen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market20 Jun 2033
No place for Artem Rogov in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Artem Rogov has his answer from Tyumen; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Transfer targets20 Jun 2033
Akron have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market20 Jun 2033
He is 20, and nobody at Tyumen signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom13 Jun 2033
Pressure builds in the Tyumen boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The terraces13 Jun 2033
Anger at Tyumen spills outside the ground
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.
Squad13 Jun 2033
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Tyumen will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market13 Jun 2033
“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.
Squad13 Jun 2033
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Tyumen can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad13 Jun 2033
A falling-out at Tyumen
Dmitry Teryaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Jun 2033
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavel Shakuro 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.
Boardroom13 Jun 2033
Tyumen cannot sign anybody
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.
Boardroom13 Jun 2033
Tyumen are $4.3M in the red
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 May 2033
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market30 May 2033
“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.
Market30 May 2033
Viktor Bese has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tyumen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout30 May 2033
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad30 May 2033
Words exchanged at Tyumen
Andrey Marjanov 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.
Squad30 May 2033
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavel Shakuro 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Apr 2033
“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.
Squad25 Apr 2033
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.
Squad25 Apr 2033
“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; Tyumen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad25 Apr 2033
A row about effort at Tyumen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luis Sandoval was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Apr 2033
Too much change too quickly at Tyumen
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout25 Apr 2033
Andrey Marjanov 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.
Market25 Apr 2033
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Tyumen could get for him.
Market25 Apr 2033
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.
Market25 Apr 2033
Tyumen have let the market know Luis Sandoval can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Apr 2033
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.
Boardroom4 Apr 2033
Emergency meeting at Tyumen
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.
Market4 Apr 2033
“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.
Market4 Apr 2033
Only the photograph left for Viktor Bese
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Viktor Bese will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tyumen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom4 Apr 2033
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.
The dugout4 Apr 2033
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad4 Apr 2033
A falling-out at Tyumen
Pavel Shakuro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom4 Apr 2033
$214.2K from the owner keeps Tyumen afloat
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 Apr 2033
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Marjanov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Mar 2033
Words exchanged at Tyumen
Dmitry Teryaev 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.
Squad28 Mar 2033
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavel Shakuro 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 dugout28 Mar 2033
The manager makes an example of Finn Flanagan
“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 Mar 2033
Too much change too quickly at Tyumen
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Market28 Mar 2033
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Tyumen money.
Market28 Mar 2033
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Mar 2033
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tyumen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets14 Mar 2033
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.
Squad14 Mar 2033
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Marjanov 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.
Squad14 Mar 2033
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.
Boardroom14 Mar 2033
126% of the income goes out in wages at Tyumen
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.
Boardroom14 Mar 2033
The borrowing at Tyumen reaches $4.4M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $4.4M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The dugout14 Mar 2033
Nobody at Tyumen 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.
Market14 Mar 2033
Tyumen have made Luis Sandoval available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout14 Mar 2033
Luis Sandoval 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Feb 2033
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tyumen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces21 Feb 2033
The mood at Tyumen 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.
Boardroom21 Feb 2033
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Tyumen
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market21 Feb 2033
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tyumen can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2033
The deal with Rodina 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.
Squad21 Feb 2033
Tempers go at Tyumen
Pavel Shakuro 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.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2033
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.
The dugout21 Feb 2033
The manager makes an example of Andrey Marjanov
“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.
Squad21 Feb 2033
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Avdeev 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.