Marked for Timur Chetoev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alania lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market26 Oct 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.
Market26 Oct 2026
Timur Chetoev has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Alania
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Batraz Gurtsiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 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 Alania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
A six-pointer for Alania
Mashuk next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Strogino to sit and watch. I want to come back to Alania and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 41. 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Alania's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Alania has to find a result from somewhere.
Market28 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Timur Chetoev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Timur Chetoev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match26 Sep 2026
Alania cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Alania
Alan Bagaev 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
Ivan Matyushenko 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
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of David Byazrov
“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.
Match28 Sep 2026
The half-term report on Alania
Position 7, 8 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
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.
Market14 Sep 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Alania people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Alania's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Alania has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 13 in, 5 out at Alania
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Batraz Gurtsiev 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dmitry Zhukov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vladislav Dubrovin is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dinamo Vologda waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Alania is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Zvezda had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Match5 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Alania
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Alania are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Alania
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Batraz Gurtsiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market7 Sep 2026
Add another name to the list: Zvezda have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Timur Chetoev. The answer from Alania has not changed — yet.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Murat Yshyk
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
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 Alania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Alania is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
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 Alania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout31 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
A goal on 94 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Match29 Aug 2026
Honours even between Alania and Mashuk
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Maksim Samsonov chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Aug 2026
Alania throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Veles the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Alania will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Ivan Matyushenko takes the afternoon — 8.85
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivan Matyushenko provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market17 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Alania people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Arsen Revazov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 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 Alania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Alania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Matyushenko 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Alania share the spoils with Veles
A 2‑2 draw with Veles leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.