Marked for Arthur Spadoni
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Mar 2036
“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 The request is on a desk at Orenburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom17 Mar 2036
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Dejan Ulmer has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad17 Mar 2036
Vladislav Kravtsov 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.
Squad17 Mar 2036
Yegor Stepanov 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.
The dugout17 Mar 2036
“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.
Market17 Mar 2036
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Arthur Spadoni has his answer from Orenburg; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad17 Mar 2036
At 20 years old, Matvey Vasilyev became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
Market17 Mar 2036
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Bogdan Tsybrov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad17 Mar 2036
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Orenburg would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Dec 2035
Orenburg sink to position 16
7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match15 Dec 2035
The wait goes on for Orenburg
8 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.
Squad17 Dec 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad17 Dec 2035
Bogdan Tsybrov 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.
Squad17 Dec 2035
Words at Orenburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Gegić 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 Dec 2035
CSKA Moscow left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 Dec 2035
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout17 Dec 2035
“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.
The dugout17 Dec 2035
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Nov 2035
Mikhail Gainov damages knee ligaments — 83 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad12 Nov 2035
22 days out for Benjamin Gegić after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Orenburg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market12 Nov 2035
“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.
Match10 Nov 2035
No end in sight to Orenburg's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Orenburg has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Words exchanged at Orenburg
Benjamin Brglez 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.
Match10 Nov 2035
Arthur Spadoni scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Ural, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
“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.
Match12 Nov 2035
Orenburg at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 15, 7 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Orenburg dressing room in a hurry
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Market
Orenburg and Arseny Khvalko are talking past each other
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Sep 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match22 Sep 2035
The wait goes on for Orenburg
9 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.
Match24 Sep 2035
Orenburg sink to position 16
2 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market24 Sep 2035
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.
The dugout24 Sep 2035
“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.
Market24 Sep 2035
“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.
Boardroom24 Sep 2035
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad24 Sep 2035
The medical room confirms 72 days on the sidelines for Sarmat Ogoev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad24 Sep 2035
A falling-out at Orenburg
Benjamin Brglez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match10 Mar 2035
Orenburg make home a hard place to visit
17 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings12 Mar 2035
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.44, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market12 Mar 2035
Only the photograph left for Bogdan Tsybrov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bogdan Tsybrov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Orenburg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout12 Mar 2035
Josh Bentley: 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.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Mikhail Gainov 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.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Marvin Çuni 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.
Transfer targets12 Mar 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Orenburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match10 Mar 2035
A 2‑0 win over Sokol, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout12 Mar 2035
The manager makes an example of Mikhail Gainov
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Mar 2035
Orenburg refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 71 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market5 Mar 2035
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.
Squad5 Mar 2035
A move Arthur Spadoni would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Arthur Spadoni is living that version at Orenburg, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets5 Mar 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Orenburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Benjamin Brglez 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.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Marvin Çuni 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.
Squad5 Mar 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Arthur Spadoni and Orenburg agree another 3 years.
Boardroom5 Mar 2035
Arsenal Tula will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Dmitry Pavlov has pre-agreed a move to Orenburg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Match3 Mar 2035
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.