Marked for Ivan Sorochinskiy
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nikita Pavlov slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Nikita Pavlov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nikita Pavlov 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Chaika M
A 0‑15 beating by Zarya Lugansk was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Chaika M
5 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
The goals have deserted Chaika M
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Chaika M can tell you which week it ends in.
Match29 Aug 2026
Chaika M leaking at the back
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match29 Aug 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
15 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Chaika M and Zarya Lugansk in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑15, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Chaika M
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Sorochinskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“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.