Marked for Will Fletcher
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Khimik
Vyacheslav Zinkov 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 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Will Fletcher is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom20 Sep 2027
The numbers do not look good at Khimik
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Khimik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Gruznov 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Andrey Savinov
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Jun 2027
Franco Peña hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Khimik can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Jun 2027
Franco Peña has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Khimik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Jun 2027
At 20, Mads Abrahamsen is already the best thing here
An average of 7.14 in a first team he is several years too young for. Khimik have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Khimik
Vyacheslav Zinkov 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Will Fletcher is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Khimik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Gruznov 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
Upbeat
Squad29 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Khimik
Vyacheslav Zinkov 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Khimik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Gruznov 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.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
The numbers do not look good at Khimik
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
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 Khimik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match5 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play Khimik right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Khimik
Roman Raifegerste 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 ratings7 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Gleb Yakushevich at his very best
Marked 9.41. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Khimik.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kirill Myrzakov and Khimik agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Khimik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Gruznov 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ilja Gruznov 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Dinamo Barnaul made Khimik work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 19, 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
Upbeat
Match23 Nov 2026
Khimik up to position 2
28 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market23 Nov 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 27 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Khimik
Vyacheslav Zinkov 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Khimik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Gruznov 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ilja Gruznov. 1‑0 against Akron 2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Ilja Gruznov at his very best
Marked 8.49. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Khimik.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Nov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Khimik may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 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 Khimik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Khimik
Vyacheslav Zinkov 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Dmitry Veber 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ilja Gruznov 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Will Fletcher commits to Khimik for another 3 years.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
18 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
7.42, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Khimik had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Market14 Sep 2026
He is 18, and nobody at Khimik signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Match12 Sep 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Krylya Sovetov 2 came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.