Marked for Ivan Pchelintsev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 Oct 2026
Nosta taken apart
0‑3 to Orenburg 2, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
An order from above at Nosta: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Nosta
Vitaliy Myronenko 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jordon Ibe 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 196% of everything Nosta 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 dugout2 Nov 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Nosta dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market2 Nov 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dmitry Afanasyev after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Nosta
Vitaliy Myronenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match24 Oct 2026
Volna take the points off Nosta
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Yegor Pigaev 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.
The dugout26 Oct 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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Dmitry Afanasyev to a room that had heard them before.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Nosta lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Nosta have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Nosta will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Ilja Popov does not fit this one
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Orenburg 2 in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 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 Nosta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jordon Ibe 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
Nosta come up short against Khimik
Khimik left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Jordon Ibe 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Dmitry Afanasyev to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Ivan Pchelintsev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Nosta 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Market28 Sep 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nosta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 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 targets14 Sep 2026
The deal with Khimik died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 18 in, 0 out at Nosta
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market14 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Ivan Pchelintsev reports back to Nosta with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Nosta
Vitaliy Myronenko 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 targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nart have kept their man, and Nosta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout14 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
Kolomna come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Nosta did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Nosta
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordon Ibe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market7 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A loan enquiry to Khimik: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A loan move for Oleg Smirnov is in the works
Nosta have made the call to Veles. 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
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nosta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Arseny Vainer has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Nosta 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Ilja Kazakov has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
9 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.
Market31 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 Nosta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Nosta had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Rubin, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Nosta
Vitaliy Myronenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rodina have kept their man, and Nosta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Nosta
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordon Ibe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Maxim Shalonikov 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Danila Boiko’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Nosta.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
10 combined actions and 7.30. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2026
Nosta out of the cup
Sevastopol ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Zenit, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Zenit keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match19 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Nosta
4 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.
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 Nosta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Ilja Popov
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Nosta
9 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 dugout24 Aug 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Dmitry Afanasyev to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Yenisey have kept their man, and Nosta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Nosta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordon Ibe 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Nosta
Yegor Pigaev 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The formation has left Adam Boček behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Nosta will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nosta, another week without a signature from David Kokoev.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Zenit: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Match15 Aug 2026
Nosta and Amkar take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stanislav Irshev and Nosta agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Astrakhan this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Nosta
Stanislav Irshev 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 targets3 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Uralets-TS left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Nosta will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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 dugout3 Aug 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.