Marked for Danila Meksh
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 May 2029
The mood at Sibir has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market21 May 2029
Only the photograph left for Artur Yangaev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artur Yangaev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sibir the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom21 May 2029
Sibir cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad21 May 2029
A row about effort at Sibir
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilja Maximenkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom21 May 2029
Sibir are $6.3M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad21 May 2029
Words exchanged at Sibir
Danila Meksh 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.
The dugout21 May 2029
Maxim Karaev 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.
Market21 May 2029
The name of Ivan Churikov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sibir say nothing, which says plenty.
Market21 May 2029
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Sibir could get for him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom19 Mar 2029
Pressure builds in the Sibir boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad19 Mar 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matvey Kovalev
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sibir lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market19 Mar 2029
“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 Sibir, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom19 Mar 2029
119% of the income goes out in wages at Sibir
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.
Market19 Mar 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Oleg Nikolaev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market19 Mar 2029
The shop window has Danila Meksh in it
Sibir have let the market know Danila Meksh can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
Vlad Gubin 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 Vlad Gubin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market19 Mar 2029
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Sibir money.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout12 Feb 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout12 Feb 2029
“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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Danila Meksh 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 Sibir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Feb 2029
A row about effort at Sibir
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Redkovich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market12 Feb 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
Georgy Zotov 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 Sibir, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market12 Feb 2029
The name of Maxim Chikanchi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sibir say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad12 Feb 2029
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Sibir will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Market12 Feb 2029
6 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Sibir money.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom22 Jan 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Sibir
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Sibir is running low.
Market22 Jan 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sibir is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Tempers go at Sibir
Danila Meksh 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.
Boardroom22 Jan 2029
107% of the income goes out in wages at Sibir
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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Dmitry Redkovich 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 dugout22 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Timurs Azarovs
“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.
Market22 Jan 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ivan Churikov signs something — a contract at Sibir or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market22 Jan 2029
6 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Sibir money.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
Oleg Magomedov 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 Sibir, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Sibir
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Sibir is running low.
Market25 Dec 2028
Only the photograph left for Artur Yangaev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artur Yangaev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sibir the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
Wages swallow 128% of the Sibir income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A row about effort at Sibir
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilja Maximenkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
Georgy Zotov 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Tempers go at Sibir
Danila Meksh 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 Dec 2028
Supporters organise against the Sibir board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
$177.1K of the owner's money at Sibir
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
No signings allowed at Sibir
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Ilja Maximenkov 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.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The Sibir debt reaches $6.3M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words exchanged at Sibir
Danila Meksh 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Vasily Shuvalov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces6 Nov 2028
Supporters organise against the Sibir board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Anton Dzyuba has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match4 Nov 2028
No end in sight to Sibir's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sibir has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
$164.2K of the owner's money at Sibir
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
No signings allowed at Sibir
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad6 Nov 2028
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Ilja Maximenkov 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.
Looking ahead6 Nov 2028
A six-pointer for Sibir
Mashuk next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The Sibir debt reaches $6.2M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Oct 2028
Sibir are in real trouble now
Position 8, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market16 Oct 2028
“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 Sibir, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match14 Oct 2028
The wait goes on for Sibir
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.
Market16 Oct 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sibir is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match14 Oct 2028
Sibir cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match14 Oct 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad16 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Sibir
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilja Maximenkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Oct 2028
A falling-out at Sibir
Danila Meksh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Anton Dzyuba to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Jul 2028
Alexandr Yeliseev damages knee ligaments — 87 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 87 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
A brace, and Maxim Chikanchi takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Maxim Chikanchi provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market31 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sibir can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sibir is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match29 Jul 2028
Three points for Sibir, 2‑1 the final word against Tyumen in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad31 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Sibir
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilja Maximenkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
A performance of 8.10 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad31 Jul 2028
A falling-out at Sibir
Danila Meksh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jun 2028
Alexandr Yeliseev damages knee ligaments — 122 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 122 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market26 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Nart waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sibir is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market26 Jun 2028
Only the photograph left for Anton Makurin
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Makurin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sibir the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market26 Jun 2028
“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 Sibir, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market26 Jun 2028
Sibir say no — this time
The offer from Nart for Artur Yangaev 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Ilja Maximenkov 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
Amir Alizade asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jun 2028
129 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sibir lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market19 Jun 2028
“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.
Market19 Jun 2028
Only the photograph left for Maxim Kiselev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxim Kiselev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sibir the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Tempers go at Sibir
Maxim Chikanchi 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.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
No signings allowed at Sibir
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Bogdan Boldyrev 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.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
The Sibir debt reaches $5.2M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
Wages eat 88% of everything Sibir earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market19 Jun 2028
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sibir has been clear about where Alexandr Yeliseev stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 May 2028
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sibir lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market1 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sibir is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 May 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sibir know it.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Sibir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Yeliseev 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.
Market1 May 2028
No place for Danila Meksh in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Danila Meksh has his answer from Sibir; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout1 May 2028
“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 dugout1 May 2028
Alexandr Yeliseev loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Alexandr Yeliseev's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Market1 May 2028
The name of Amir Alizade keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sibir say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Mar 2028
Ilja Maximenkov damages knee ligaments — 108 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 108 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Anton Dzyuba has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market6 Mar 2028
Anton Makurin has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sibir they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market6 Mar 2028
Strogino come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sibir did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The owner puts $43.4K into Sibir
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad6 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Sibir
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bogdan Boldyrev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Danila Meksh 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 Sibir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Mar 2028
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Vladimir Kosmachev 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.