Marked for Ivan Goryainov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 May 2027
Saturn are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 42 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad31 May 2027
Tempers go at Saturn
Valery Chupin 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.
Squad31 May 2027
An average of 7.04 in a first team he is several years too young for. Saturn have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Apr 2027
At 21, Bogdan Matsola is already the best thing here
An average of 7.05 in a first team he is several years too young for. Saturn have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Maxim Sedov 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 Saturn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ivan Goryainov and Saturn agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Dec 2026
Artem Teterkin: 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.” Saturn have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Saturn
Maxim Sedov 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 335% of everything Saturn 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Three points for Saturn, 1‑0 the final word against Tver in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 18, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A defender's afternoon for Maxim Sedov
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Loan watch28 Dec 2026
16 appearances away from home and 9 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Sep 2026
Saturn bow out of the cup
Ufa go through and Saturn go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market5 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.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 5 of the 24 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Saturn may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Saturn
Maxim Sedov 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 606% of everything Saturn 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.
Squad5 Oct 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 Aug 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maxim Sedov and Saturn agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Saturn
Maxim Sedov 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Maxim Bogdanets’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Saturn.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 8.71 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months and counting on Maxim Sedov
Still no offer on the table, and Maxim Sedov’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mikhail Sheludyakov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Saturn.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Grigory Loskov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.