Sergey Konakov

Right Back - Khimik
27 Apr 2027
Tuesday
Process

Marked for Sergey Konakov

16 Edition

The Khimik Gazette

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Nikita Abramushkin 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 Khimik can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Kirill Gordeev 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 Khimik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Khimik training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Veber 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 dugout

Vyacheslav Khudoklinov 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.

The dugout

Oleg Trofimov has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Khimik 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.

Looking ahead

Sergey Konakov faces his old club

Akron 2 next, and one man in the Khimik dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.

Market

Nikita Nikiforov linked with a move away

The name of Nikita Nikiforov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Khimik say nothing, which says plenty.

Match

Khimik in the hunt for Europe

Position 6, 25 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.

The dugout

Daniil Knyazev 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 Khimik, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

Back issues
3 Edition

The Khimik Gazette

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Khimik to lose Ilja Gruznov for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ilja Gruznov has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.

Squad

Mahboob stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Mahboob and Khimik agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Khimik

Kirill Gordeev 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.

Transfer targets

Too dear: Khimik walk away from Yegor Besaev

$12.0K was the most the club would pay and CSKA Moscow were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.

Market

Business is business: Ilja Gruznov goes

Akron paid $210.0K and Khimik took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Squad

A row about effort at Khimik

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Uboniev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Ilja Antsiferov is in the works

Khimik have made the call to Cherepovets. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

Market

A long bet from Khimik on Mahboob

He is 20, and nobody at Khimik signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.

The dugout

Nikita Abramushkin is still paying for one afternoon at Khimik

Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.

In brief