Marked for Alexandr Shashkov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match9 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Legion's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Legion has to find a result from somewhere.
Match11 Jan 2027
Legion sink to position 14
19 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market11 Jan 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Legion may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Legion
Amirali Khorrami 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 ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.46 on the card, and the Legion support went home talking about one name.
Squad11 Jan 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Anzor Tokaev 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at Legion, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Legion may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Legion
Amirali Khorrami 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 ratings2 Nov 2026
A defender's afternoon for Artem Babchuk
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
372% of the income goes out in wages at Legion
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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Nov 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match31 Oct 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Spartak Nalchik defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Legion
Artem Babchuk 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Three points for Legion, 1‑0 the final word against Druzhba in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad26 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.87 on the card, and the Legion support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
Legion bow out of the cup
Druzhba go through and Legion go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match22 Aug 2026
Nowhere to hide for Legion
0‑3 against Dinamo Stavropol, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Alexandr Shashkov: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 19 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market24 Aug 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 Legion, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Legion
Jamaludin Ipaev 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.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.12, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Göktan Cörüt and Legion agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad17 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 Legion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.84 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Yegor Truntaev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Legion.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gadji Kurbanov, and the manager let it.
Market17 Aug 2026
Christos Darviras is 19, and Legion have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market17 Aug 2026
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.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Legion signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market17 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Yaroslav Matvienko may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2026
139 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Volna
Dmitry Rebrov 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alan Fernando Gutierrez and Volna agree another 3 years.
Market17 Aug 2026
Legion paid $7.0K and Volna took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 9.08 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match15 Aug 2026
Three points for Volna, 1‑0 the final word against Uralets-TS in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Igor Belyakov
“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.