Marked for Sergey Dedyaev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 32. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market15 Feb 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Metallurg have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market15 Feb 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 Metallurg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Alexandr Kobzev 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.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rodina have kept their man, and Metallurg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Vedeneev 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
A 2‑0 win over Orel, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
This is not rotation. Nikita Panov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Metallurg is pretending otherwise.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 7.70 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Metallurg had the best player on the pitch.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Feb 2027
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Metallurg scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Match6 Feb 2027
The drought breaks for Metallurg
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Dinamo St Petersburg were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Vedeneev 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 terraces8 Feb 2027
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout8 Feb 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 ratings8 Feb 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.91 on the card, and the Metallurg support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match26 Dec 2026
4 matches without a win for Metallurg
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Metallurg are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Alexandr Kobzev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Vedeneev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
318% of the income goes out in wages at Metallurg
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 dugout28 Dec 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Metallurg caught on 93 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Dinamo Bryansk scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Match26 Dec 2026
It needed Dmitry Savin to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Dinamo Bryansk, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Ilnur Badrtdinov 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Abdulla Ahmed commits to Metallurg for another 4 years.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
The game went through Denis Semin — 6.83
Marked 6.83 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The dugout14 Dec 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A mark of 7.06, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Dmitry Savin beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Yefrem Karimov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Metallurg dressing room was either.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Metallurg will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Vedeneev 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sergey Dedyaev, and the manager let it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Yegor Ushakov gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yegor Ushakov is on it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Metallurg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market9 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ilnur Badrtdinov signs something — a contract at Metallurg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Market9 Nov 2026
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Metallurg money.
Squad9 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rodina keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Maxim Vedeneev 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sergey Dedyaev, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Dmitry Savin is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Dmitry Savin has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Yegor Ushakov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Metallurg 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Yegor Ushakov moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Metallurg than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Rodina M next, and one man in the Metallurg dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market7 Sep 2026
The name of Ilnur Badrtdinov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Metallurg say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Aug 2026
Rodina M come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Metallurg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ilnur Badrtdinov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Vedeneev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
The afternoon belonged to Denis Semin
A mark of 7.92, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The formation has left Sergey Dedyaev behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Metallurg will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Yefrem Karimov kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Metallurg, another week without a signature from Sergey Dedyaev.