Marked for Pacho
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Apr 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slávia TU Košice can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Slávia TU Košice may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Lukáš Remeň 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Adrián Urban 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.
Market10 Apr 2028
No place for Marek Sokol in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marek Sokol has his answer from Slávia TU Košice; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Anton Sloboda has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Slávia TU Košice will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aleksandar Georgiev, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Štefan Harvila 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 Štefan Harvila trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market10 Apr 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Filip Žák’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Michal Skriniar has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Slávia TU Košice can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The terraces6 Mar 2028
Supporters organise against the Slávia TU Košice board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market6 Mar 2028
Nazar Makeev 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 Slávia TU Košice can pretend not to have heard.
Match6 Mar 2028
The season ends: position 13 for Slávia TU Košice
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 37 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Match4 Mar 2028
No end in sight to Slávia TU Košice's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Slávia TU Košice has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Anton Sloboda and Slávia TU Košice agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukáš Remeň was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Michal Zapletal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Pacho is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yefim Stanislavchuk 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.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Ignatjev, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Sep 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 Chelyabinsk 2 will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout6 Sep 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 Chelyabinsk 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The captaincy has been taken off Fabio Deviardi. Chelyabinsk 2 will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market30 Aug 2027
Pacho 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 Chelyabinsk 2 can pretend not to have heard.
Match28 Aug 2027
4 matches without a win for Chelyabinsk 2
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Chelyabinsk 2 are no longer polite ones.
Match28 Aug 2027
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Ignatjev 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.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Fabio Deviardi did the work nobody counts — 6.80
12 combined actions and 6.80. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Maxim Korotkov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
Artem Ignatjev knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chelyabinsk 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Match28 Aug 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Dinamo Barnaul defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Jan 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 16 matches without defeat is a foundation Astrakhan did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.96, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market1 Feb 2027
Pacho puts it in writing
“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 Astrakhan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Feb 2027
The name of Ivan Kudryashov has come up in conversations Astrakhan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The offer went to Volgar this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Match30 Jan 2027
Astrakhan make home a hard place to visit
9 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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Druzhba have kept their man, and Astrakhan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Dmitry Shilov
“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
Upbeat
Match9 Jan 2027
4‑0, and Pavel Solomatin took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Astrakhan tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match11 Jan 2027
48 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A brace, and Pavel Solomatin takes the afternoon — 8.86
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pavel Solomatin provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom11 Jan 2027
Somebody else wants the manager
Partizani Tirana have made their interest known and Astrakhan have to have a conversation they never wanted. A manager other clubs ask about is a manager whose next contract costs more.
Match9 Jan 2027
Nobody wants to play Astrakhan right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Looking ahead11 Jan 2027
Top-of-the-table clash for Astrakhan
Rostov 2 next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Dmitry Shilov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Rasul Zhangurazov at his very best
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Astrakhan.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Jan 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 12 matches without defeat is a foundation Astrakhan did not have in the autumn.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Astrakhan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Kudryashov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match2 Jan 2027
Three points for Astrakhan, 1‑0 the final word against Legion in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Artur Karpov beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.34, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
A mark of 7.85, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
the manager: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Pacho gets it from the manager
“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.
Market4 Jan 2027
Dmitry Belov is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Astrakhan has been clear about where Dmitry Belov stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Dec 2026
Still nobody has beaten Astrakhan
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Danil Goryaev, 21, steals the show — 7.88
Marked 7.88 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Pacho: 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.” Astrakhan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Fedor Semenov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match19 Dec 2026
It needed Danil Goryaev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Kyzyltash, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
the manager on the point
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” the manager after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout21 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.
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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
Magomed Pirmagomedov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Astrakhan man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Danil Goryaev was the best thing in any of them.
Market16 Nov 2026
No place for Artur Karpov in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Artur Karpov has his answer from Astrakhan; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
No hiding place for Pacho
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pacho, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Nov 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Maxim Malysh may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Maxim Malysh knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Astrakhan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market16 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Valentin Grishin’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Astrakhan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Oct 2026
Chaika M will want this one forgotten quickly: 10‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Astrakhan were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The match ball belongs to Ivan Kudryashov, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad26 Oct 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Chances created: 22. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
Match24 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Astrakhan right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Danil Goryaev scored one and made one — 7.56
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.56, and 2 involvements.
Match24 Oct 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 10 goals between Astrakhan and Chaika M, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.43, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Astrakhan
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Astrakhan are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Rasul Zhangurazov at his very best
Marked 8.31. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Astrakhan.
Match29 Aug 2026
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The dugout31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Astrakhan are still strangers to each other
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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 Astrakhan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
the manager on the point
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” the manager after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad31 Aug 2026
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Astrakhan will feel it on Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 7 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Druzhba pay $66.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Astrakhan asked and Rodina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 7.09 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Match15 Aug 2026
No time for Rostov 2 to settle
The goal that put Rostov 2 ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Astrakhan equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The dugout17 Aug 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Astrakhan
Magomed Pirmagomedov 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Astrakhan needed to.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.