Marked for Yury Maximov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Redvan Osmanov
30 goals and a season average of 7.32 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market3 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sevastopol is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match1 May 2027
Whatever happens, Sevastopol do not lose
6 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.
The terraces3 May 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Arsen Kanteev has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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 Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lev Potapov, and the manager let it.
The dugout3 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Igor Vasilyev, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sevastopol lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A season average of 7.35 with 30 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market5 Apr 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sevastopol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 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 Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market5 Apr 2027
“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 dugout5 Apr 2027
Lev Potapov left out for the big one
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Lev Potapov will call it something else in private.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
In brief
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Boardroom
Sevastopol counting the cost
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Artem Stepanovich asks for a word with the manager
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vladyslav Hevlych
126 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sevastopol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match28 Dec 2026
Sevastopol are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 43 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sevastopol may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Redvan Osmanov
22 goals and a season average of 7.36 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Vladyslav Hevlych 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
A 2‑0 win over Druzhba, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Amet Dugu
“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.
Match28 Dec 2026
The half-term report on Sevastopol
Position 2, 43 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 102% of everything Sevastopol 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Vladyslav Hevlych damages knee ligaments — 140 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 140 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sevastopol may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 Dec 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 Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Yury Maximov 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
“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.
Match12 Dec 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Igor Vasilyev after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Azamat Tashev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sevastopol 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Vladyslav Hevlych 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.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Angusht next, and one man in the Sevastopol dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market12 Oct 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Maxim Vertiev has his answer from Sevastopol; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Maxim Isaev 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 Maxim Isaev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 Oct 2026
Amet Dugu linked with a move away
The name of Amet Dugu keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sevastopol say nothing, which says plenty.
Market12 Oct 2026
Sevastopol have made Yury Yakunin available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Sep 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sevastopol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Vladyslav Hevlych and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Sep 2026
Astrakhan left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match26 Sep 2026
After 5 games, Sevastopol finally taste it again
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Astrakhan; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Serafim Abzalilov, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Sevastopol
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Igor Vasilyev left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Amet Dugu 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Maxim Isaev 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 Maxim Isaev is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Yenisey have kept their man, and Sevastopol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Amet Dugu 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 Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yury Maximov, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Sevastopol have made the call to Sokol. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market17 Aug 2026
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Match15 Aug 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad17 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Aziz Gaziev
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Sevastopol will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
Spartak Nalchik will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Sevastopol were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Redvan Osmanov commits to Sevastopol for another 2 years.
Squad3 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 Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Sevastopol
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yury Maximov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Sevastopol are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Igor Vasilyev could afford to be generous.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“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.