Marked for Nikolay Ischenko
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces13 Nov 2028
The mood at Chaika 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.
Match13 Nov 2028
Every point is an argument now for Chaika
Position 18 and 13 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market13 Nov 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Chaika, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match11 Nov 2028
The wait goes on for Chaika
6 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chaika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom13 Nov 2028
The numbers do not look good at Chaika
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Ruslan Chobanov 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.
Match11 Nov 2028
Ural take the points off Chaika
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad13 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexis Coman, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Oct 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Chaika, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Tempers go at Chaika
Nikita Pavlov 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Chaika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruslan Chobanov 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.
Match21 Oct 2028
1‑2 to Neftekhimik, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Karim Giraev
“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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Nikita Pavlov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market23 Oct 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chaika know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Sep 2028
Gonzalo Reyes breaks a bone — 27 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market25 Sep 2028
“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 Chaika, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Tempers go at Chaika
Stanislav Biblyk 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.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Chaika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Dunay (Karpenko) 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 ratings25 Sep 2028
Marked 7.44. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Sep 2028
A fracture rules Gonzalo Reyes out for 41 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chaika will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market11 Sep 2028
Yury Petin 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 Chaika can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Daniil Lukin: 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.” Chaika have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Sep 2028
A last season at home is what Marcos Inzaurraga is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chaika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces11 Sep 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Morgan Arnstad has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match9 Sep 2028
Fakel made Chaika work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Ninety minutes of Nikolay Ischenko at his very best
Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Chaika.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Aug 2028
Yury Petin 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 Chaika can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
The Chaika board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Yury Petin is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Chaika
Stanislav Biblyk 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.
Match5 Aug 2028
A bad afternoon for Chaika against Ufa
1‑3 to Ufa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniil Stolyarov, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Chaika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michał Bierzało 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.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
87% of the income goes out in wages at Chaika
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Market7 Aug 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alexey Nikitenkov has his answer from Chaika; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Jul 2028
“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 Chaika, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Daniil Lukin is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Chaika
Alexis Coman 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.
Match29 Jul 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Stanislav Biblyk’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Chaika.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Michał Bierzało 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Market31 Jul 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Stanislav Biblyk’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Jul 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nikolay Ischenko and Chaika agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chaika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Jul 2028
Nikita Posmashny has left for Rostov in a $240.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad3 Jul 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Chaika told Marcos Inzaurraga something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad3 Jul 2028
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.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
Chaika sign 5 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Jun 2028
Chaika are in real trouble now
Position 18, 25 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
“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 Chaika, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Alexis Coman in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chaika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
Wages eat 108% of everything Chaika earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad12 Jun 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Nikolay Ischenko'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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Chaika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanley Hipkiss 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 May 2028
“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 Chaika, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chaika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Chaika know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 May 2028
Every point is an argument now for Chaika
Position 18 and 25 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market15 May 2028
“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 Chaika, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 May 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Chaika know it.
Squad15 May 2028
Tempers go at Chaika
Stanislav Biblyk 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.
Boardroom15 May 2028
Wages eat 134% of everything Chaika earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Chaika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruslan Chobanov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Apr 2028
Chaika are in real trouble now
Position 18, 25 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.
Market17 Apr 2028
“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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chaika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
Wages eat 132% of everything Chaika earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Chaika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruslan Chobanov 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Nikolay Ischenko'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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Mar 2028
Chaika are in real trouble now
Position 18, 25 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.
Market20 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Tempers go at Chaika
Stanislav Biblyk 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.
Boardroom20 Mar 2028
139% of the income goes out in wages at Chaika
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Squad20 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Nikolay Ischenko'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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Yury Petin 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Feb 2028
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.
Market28 Feb 2028
“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 Chaika, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Chaika
Marcos Inzaurraga 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.
Match26 Feb 2028
Chaika come up short against Sokol
Sokol left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ruslan Chobanov, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Morgan Arnstad 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Nov 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Nov 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 Chaika can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
A brace, and Marcos Inzaurraga takes the afternoon — 8.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcos Inzaurraga provided it, and the 8.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Chaika may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Chaika
Alexis Coman 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.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
142% of the income goes out in wages at Chaika
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The terraces29 Nov 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match27 Nov 2027
Chaika get the job done against KAMAZ
A 2‑0 win over KAMAZ, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Chaika may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Chaika
Alexis Coman 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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
124% of the income goes out in wages at Chaika
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Squad1 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniil Stolyarov, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Nikolay Ischenko asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nikita Pavlov
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chaika lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match25 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Chaika
7 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Yury Maleev: 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.” Chaika have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market27 Sep 2027
Only the photograph left for Arseny Filev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arseny Filev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chaika the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Sep 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 Chaika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
Chaika and Sochi take a point apiece
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market27 Sep 2027
The name of Alexis Coman keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Chaika say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Arseny Filev changes it off the bench
He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Chaika had a different afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 May 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Match24 May 2027
Chaika sink to position 18
20 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad24 May 2027
Tempers go at Chaika
Stanislav Biblyk 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.
Squad24 May 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Chaika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdullo Djebov 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.
Market24 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alexis Coman’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chaika lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match26 Apr 2027
Chaika sink to position 18
20 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
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 Chaika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Torpedo Moscow may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Mario Ćurić 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Torpedo Moscow training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruslan Apekov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Rostislav Soldatenko: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match6 Jan 2027
Akhmat are out and Torpedo Moscow go through, 1‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match9 Jan 2027
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match9 Jan 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Torpedo Moscow did not have in the autumn.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Mario Ćurić 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Jonathan Okoronkwo 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.77 on the card, and the Torpedo Moscow support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Samy Kehli turns it into his own net
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Torpedo Moscow deserved better, and so did he.