Marked for Evgeny Gusakov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 May 2027
Angusht are in real trouble now
Position 14, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market10 May 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Angusht, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 May 2027
Anatoly Anisimov 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Angusht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaliy Myronenko 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.
Market10 May 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.
The dugout10 May 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 Angusht, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market10 May 2027
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Angusht could get for him.
Market10 May 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Angusht know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout10 May 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 Artem Gavrilenko has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Apr 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Angusht, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Apr 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 Angusht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Angusht
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaliy Myronenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Evgeny Gusakov
“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.
Market26 Apr 2027
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Angusht could get for him.
Market26 Apr 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Yefim Kolobov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market26 Apr 2027
Angusht have let the market know Alexey Belyanin can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Angusht. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad26 Apr 2027
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Angusht the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Mar 2027
Angusht are in real trouble now
Position 14, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market15 Mar 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Angusht can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Alexandr Emeljanov 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Vitaliy Myronenko 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.
Market15 Mar 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Angusht, another week without a signature from Artem Terentjev.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Ilja Vorontsov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilja Vorontsov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“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 Angusht will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A season on the outside for Bartosz Talar
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Angusht has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market15 Mar 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Anatoly Anisimov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Miroslav Pavlov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market8 Mar 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 dugout8 Mar 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sondre Stokke and Angusht agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Angusht
Alexandr Emeljanov 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Angusht training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaliy Myronenko 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Angusht, another week without a signature from Anatoly Anisimov.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
Belts tighten at Angusht
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Maxim Abakumov loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Maxim Abakumov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Mar 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 Mar 2027
Alexey Belyanin: 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.” Angusht have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Angusht close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Angusht
Alexandr Emeljanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Angusht
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaliy Myronenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad1 Mar 2027
27 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Evgeny Gusakov
“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.
Market1 Mar 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Angusht, another week without a signature from Vitaliy Myronenko.
Market1 Mar 2027
Maxim Abakumov is 19, and Angusht have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Jan 2027
7 matches without a win for Angusht
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Angusht are no longer polite ones.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Angusht
Alexandr Emeljanov 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Emeljanov, and the manager let it.
Market11 Jan 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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Miroslav Pavlov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Gelani Khashtyrov's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Looking ahead11 Jan 2027
Angusht take on the side everybody is chasing
Nart arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Angusht will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Dec 2026
Angusht are in real trouble now
Position 13, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match19 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Angusht
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.
Match19 Dec 2026
The goals have deserted Angusht
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Angusht can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Angusht
Anatoly Anisimov 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.
The dugout21 Dec 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Evgeny Gusakov 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.
Looking ahead21 Dec 2026
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
A promise honoured at Angusht
Something was said to Alexandr Emeljanov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Player ratings21 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces30 Nov 2026
The mood at Angusht has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad30 Nov 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Angusht may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Angusht
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad30 Nov 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 Angusht this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 159% of the Angusht income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Match28 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Alexey Belyanin
“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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.