Marked for Kirill Vorobjov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Oct 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Oluwabori Falaye commits to Irtysh for another 2 years.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Karim Smykov in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irtysh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Yury Klochkov 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 dugout7 Oct 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bohdan Sarnavskyi, and the manager let it.
Market7 Oct 2030
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kirill Vorobjov has his answer from Irtysh; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout7 Oct 2030
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 Bohdan Sarnavskyi is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Sep 2030
Words exchanged at Irtysh
Yury Klochkov 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.
Squad23 Sep 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kirill Vorobjov and Irtysh agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
Nobody at Irtysh 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 dugout23 Sep 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Eldzhat Mamedov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Irtysh. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
Marko Jevtić keeps his manager's vote
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Marko Jevtić plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Jul 2030
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Match20 Jul 2030
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Irtysh scored in the 94th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
Irtysh had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ascoli, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Player ratings22 Jul 2030
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.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Tempers go at Irtysh
Karim Smykov 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.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Yury Klochkov 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 terraces22 Jul 2030
At 23 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.
Match20 Jul 2030
It finished 1‑0, and it was Jacob Wright’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Irtysh.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
A loan enquiry to Red Bull Salzburg: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.