Marked for Sergey Mokrousov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match4 Jan 2027
First, on 32 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Textilschik had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov 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 dugout4 Jan 2027
“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 dugout4 Jan 2027
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 Andrey Yevdokimov is on it.
Market4 Jan 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Rohan Vaughan is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Evgeny Tatarinov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrey Yevdokimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages swallow 326% of the Textilschik 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.
The dugout28 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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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 Textilschik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Šimon Jalovičor and Textilschik agree another 3 years.
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 Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Sergey Mokrousov arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sergey Mokrousov has, at Textilschik, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ural have kept their man, and Textilschik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Evgeny Gusakov, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Textilschik will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Dinamo St Petersburg: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.