Marked for Yegor Ananjev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Apr 2028
Only the photograph left for André Sarim
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. André Sarim will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Metallurg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Apr 2028
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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Nikita Kononenko 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Metallurg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Dmitry Savin 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Alexey Skvortsov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match20 Mar 2028
43 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Dmitry Savin 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jul 2027
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Dmitry Savin 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Alexey Skvortsov 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.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
104% 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
Savva Potapov is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Metallurg has been clear about where Savva Potapov stands, which is more than many ever get.
The terraces12 Jul 2027
Supporters make their feelings known about Alexey Skvortsov
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Metallurg would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Skvortsov 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.
Squad10 May 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 May 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Alexey Skvortsov 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.
Loan watch3 May 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Metallurg, and 1 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Skvortsov 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Savin, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yegor Ananjev and Metallurg agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Feb 2027
Metallurg say no — this time
The offer from Beroe for Alexey Skvortsov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jahongir Isomiddinov and Metallurg agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Alexandr Kobzev 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A move Artem Popkov would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Artem Popkov is living that version at Metallurg, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Skvortsov 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A brace, and Daniil Grigorjev takes the afternoon — 8.52
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniil Grigorjev provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.31, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match19 Dec 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Metallurg did not have in the autumn.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Ilnur Badrtdinov 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 Dec 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Metallurg and Rodina M in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match19 Dec 2026
Rodina M made Metallurg work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad21 Dec 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
André Sarim 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.