Marked for Maxim Bogdanets
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Sep 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Saturn, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Sep 2027
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.
Squad13 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 Saturn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Marked 9.28 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match11 Sep 2027
Saturn get the job done against Tver
A 3‑1 win over Tver, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad13 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.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
A performance of 8.45 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 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 Saturn, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Aug 2027
The wait goes on for Saturn
5 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Saturn
Maxim Sedov 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 ratings30 Aug 2027
A performance of 8.64 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match28 Aug 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Dinamo Vologda leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“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.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
Saturn counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Saturn now.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Ivan Goryainov 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 Ivan Goryainov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Jul 2027
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Match31 Jul 2027
Whatever happens, Saturn do not lose
11 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad2 Aug 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 Saturn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Marked 9.34 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Marked 9.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.02, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Marked 8.77 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad2 Aug 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Akhjad Garisultanov and Saturn agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Jul 2027
Still nobody has beaten Saturn
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market19 Jul 2027
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Dmitri Ovchinnikov is a Saturn player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market19 Jul 2027
The shirt still fits. Prokhor Lisitsin is back at Saturn, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market19 Jul 2027
The shirt still fits. Nikolai Putin is back at Saturn, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market19 Jul 2027
The shirt still fits. Vsevolod Shevchenko is back at Saturn, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Saturn
Maxim Sedov 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 ratings19 Jul 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.87, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match17 Jul 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Maxim Bogdanets’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Saturn.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Dec 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 Saturn, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 27 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dmitry Ivanov and Saturn agree another 3 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Maxim Sedov 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 Saturn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I watch every Saturn game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Alania runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match5 Dec 2026
0‑1 to Torpedo Vladimir, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vadim Guskov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Dec 2026
Maxim Sedov linked with a move away
The name of Maxim Sedov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Saturn say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maxim Sedov and Saturn agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Saturn
Maxim Sedov 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Yenisey 2 made Saturn work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 9.13 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.96 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months and counting on Maxim Sedov
Still no offer on the table, and Maxim Sedov’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Semyon Bobrov knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Mikhail Sheludyakov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Saturn.