Marked for Alexandr Danilov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Aug 2026
Elnur Khalygov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cherepovets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market17 Aug 2026
Kvant come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Cherepovets did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Andrey Pyrkin
“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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match15 Aug 2026
It needed Ilja Antsiferov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Yenisey 2, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Vladivostok: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cherepovets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Cherepovets have paid $35.0K for Alexandr Danilov, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match8 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gavriil Maksimov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. 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
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metallurg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Alexandr Kobzev 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Daniil Bortsov 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. Daniil Bortsov is living that version at Metallurg, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market10 Aug 2026
Alexandr Danilov has left for Cherepovets in a $35.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mark Rumyantsev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Timofey Egorov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Match8 Aug 2026
Zenit Penza left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
In brief
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Squad
A row about effort at Metallurg
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
The formation has left Mark Isong behind
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Aug 2026
Maxim Dedelev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cherepovets can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrey Pyrkin and Cherepovets agree another 2 years.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
$37.0K on the table at Dinamo St Petersburg. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Cherepovets have gone to Metallurg with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ilja Antsiferov 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
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Cherepovets had all but put away. Irkutsk will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Anton Balashov’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
7.44, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Cherepovets had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.