Marked for Alexandr Dementjev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Artem Biryukov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Dementjev 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gleb Geikin, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Yegor Lipaev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zenit Penza 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Market21 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Evgeny Yegorov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Zenit Penza will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Market21 Dec 2026
Zenit Penza have made Nikita Kolesin available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
In brief
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Market
Gleb Geikin runs his contract down
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Looking ahead
Looking ahead: the trip to Ryazan
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zenit Penza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad9 Nov 2026
29 days out for Makar Artemyev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Zenit Penza will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market9 Nov 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 Zenit Penza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zenit Penza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Artem Biryukov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Evgeny Yegorov 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Znamya Truda left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout9 Nov 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
43 days out for Makar Artemyev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Zenit Penza will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
There were 6 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Evgeny Yegorov 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Biryukov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout26 Oct 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Something was said to Artem Biryukov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Yegor Lipaev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zenit Penza 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zenit Penza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market12 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zenit Penza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Artem Biryukov 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 Oct 2026
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Korolev 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Martin Tauš
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Denis Skrypnikov and Zenit Penza agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Timur Pazylov has had enough of the bench
“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 Zenit Penza will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
Artem Biryukov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets28 Sep 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Zenit Penza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Kazakov 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Sep 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 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alexei Gordeev after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Daniil Kashmin 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 Daniil Kashmin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Artem Biryukov, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Zenit Penza would like this to lead.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market14 Sep 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zenit Penza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Yegor Lipaev, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 19 in, 0 out at Zenit Penza
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Biryukov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Sep 2026
Three points for Zenit Penza, 2‑1 the final word against Salyut in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Yegor Lipaev 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zenit Penza, another week without a signature from Dmitry Ivanov.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexandr Dementjev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zenit Penza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $19.0K — a club that wants Maxim Abakumov enough to be asked twice.
Squad17 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 Zenit Penza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeny Yegorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Evgeny Yegorov, and the manager let it.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Zenit Penza were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Market17 Aug 2026
The shape has not worked since the summer and the reason was never a mystery. Yuri Solovyov comes in from Neftyanik to be the missing piece, which is a flattering description and a heavy one.
Market17 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.