Marked for Maxim Syschenko
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Nov 2027
“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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad1 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orenburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Oct 2027
3 matches without a goal for Orenburg
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match30 Oct 2027
Rubin left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Orenburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jersson González 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 dugout1 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ivan Ivaschenko is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market20 Sep 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Leon Bätge had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market20 Sep 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Orenburg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad20 Sep 2027
6 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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Market20 Sep 2027
“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 Sep 2027
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maxim Syschenko and Orenburg agree another 4 years.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Orenburg
Stanislav Poroikov 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.
Match18 Sep 2027
Dinamo Moscow left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Sep 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Orenburg have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market6 Sep 2027
“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 targets6 Sep 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Ufa; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
Renat Golybin: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Orenburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market6 Sep 2027
Orenburg say no — this time
The offer from Tyumen for Danila Khotulev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad6 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orenburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Jordhy Thompson 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.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Kasimov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Aug 2027
22 days out for Alexey Tataev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Orenburg 2 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market30 Aug 2027
“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.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Marked 8.45 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Ivan Morozov 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kirill Dudarin commits to Orenburg 2 for another 4 years.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“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.
Match28 Aug 2027
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Maxim Syschenko 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.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Maxim Syschenko is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“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.
Market28 Jun 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dmitry Cherkasov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad28 Jun 2027
The training reports on Yegor Postrigan are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
Market28 Jun 2027
The loan is done. Appearances: 26. Goals: 0. The number that matters is neither — it is how the manager looks at him on the first morning of training.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Yaroslav Frolov has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chernomorets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
Wages eat 111% of everything Chernomorets 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 dugout14 Jun 2027
Kirill Suslov gets picked when it counts
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 Kirill Suslov is on it.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Emil Yanchev, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“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.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kirill Morozov has written the date down.
Market14 Jun 2027
“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.
Market14 Jun 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chernomorets know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jun 2027
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Chernomorets had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad7 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chernomorets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zaur Tarba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market7 Jun 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Chernomorets than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Market7 Jun 2027
The name of Krasian Kolev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Chernomorets say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chernomorets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Emil Yanchev has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Emil Yanchev has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout10 May 2027
Nobody at Orenburg 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 dugout10 May 2027
Leon Bätge 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.
Market10 May 2027
The name of Gedeon Guzina keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Orenburg say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dylan Ragolle
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chernomorets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Kirill Suslov 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Something was said to Georgy Natabashvili and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
92% of the income goes out in wages at Chernomorets
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 dugout19 Apr 2027
Kirill Suslov gets picked when it counts
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 Kirill Suslov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jan 2027
Danil Krot breaks a bone — 29 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Maxim Syschenko is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Match9 Jan 2027
After 4 games, Chernomorets finally taste it again
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against KAMAZ; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A mark of 7.69, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
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.
Match9 Jan 2027
It needed Krasian Kolev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against KAMAZ, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Half-satisfied: Timur Matveev on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
Michał Bajdur damages knee ligaments — 48 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.17, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Kirill Suslov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match21 Nov 2026
Neftekhimik made Chernomorets work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout23 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Chernomorets know it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Timur Matveev on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad12 Oct 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 Chernomorets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maximilian Onisiwo, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Chernomorets told Daniil Martovoy something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Maxim Syschenko is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Zaurbek Pliev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Chernomorets needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Georgy Natabashvili has written the date down.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Chernomorets would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market12 Oct 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Aug 2026
1‑4 to Rotor, 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Zaur Tarba delivers — 7.44
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Zaur Tarba scored, was marked 7.44, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ilja Zhigulev and Chernomorets agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ilja Zhigulev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zaur Tarba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Chernomorets 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Timur Matveev after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Daniil Martovoy is in the works
Chernomorets have made the call to Shinnik. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.