Marked for Mikhail Chumak
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Mikhail Chumak 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
3 matches without a goal for Chelyabinsk 2
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Volna left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yury Rudakov, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2026
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Khimik left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Chelyabinsk 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolay Kozlov 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.
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 Chelyabinsk 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Mikhail Chumak
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑5 to Krylya Sovetov 2, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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 Chelyabinsk 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Pashkov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Chelyabinsk 2 dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Artem Ignatjev 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 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 Chelyabinsk 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Squad10 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad10 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yury Rudakov and Chelyabinsk 2 agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mikhail Chumak 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.