Marked for Roman Protsenko
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Nov 2032
32 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
The dugout15 Nov 2032
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zarya Lugansk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market15 Nov 2032
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zarya Lugansk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2032
Top-of-the-table clash for Zarya Lugansk
Yenisey next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad15 Nov 2032
Words at Zarya Lugansk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Ntumba 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.
Squad15 Nov 2032
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Zarya Lugansk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 Nov 2032
Too much change too quickly at Zarya Lugansk
11 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 dugout15 Nov 2032
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Zarya Lugansk told Ivan Merzlyakov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Nov 2032
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zarya Lugansk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings8 Nov 2032
A brace, and Artem Ntumba takes the afternoon — 8.21
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Artem Ntumba provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market8 Nov 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolai Slotsager will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zarya Lugansk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match6 Nov 2032
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Zarya Lugansk have 4 straight wins of it.
The dugout8 Nov 2032
This is not rotation. Csongor Komáromi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zarya Lugansk is pretending otherwise.
Squad8 Nov 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zarya Lugansk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom8 Nov 2032
$201.8K of the owner's money at Zarya Lugansk
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.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Roman Protsenko 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.
Match6 Nov 2032
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Artem Ntumba. 2‑0 against Leningradets, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Nov 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gokhan Karaman
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zarya Lugansk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad1 Nov 2032
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market1 Nov 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Polivanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zarya Lugansk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match30 Oct 2032
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Zarya Lugansk have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad1 Nov 2032
Ivan Merzlyakov 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.
Squad1 Nov 2032
Roman Protsenko 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 terraces1 Nov 2032
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Ivan Merzlyakov 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.
Match30 Oct 2032
KAMAZ made Zarya Lugansk work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market1 Nov 2032
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Zarya Lugansk has been clear about where Nikolay Sharapov stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Oct 2032
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zarya Lugansk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market25 Oct 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zarya Lugansk can pretend not to have heard.
Market25 Oct 2032
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zarya Lugansk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Oct 2032
Roman Protsenko 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 terraces25 Oct 2032
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match23 Oct 2032
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexandros Kedikoglou. 1‑0 against Neftekhimik, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
This is not rotation. Kirill Signevich has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zarya Lugansk is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom25 Oct 2032
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.
Looking ahead25 Oct 2032
Top-of-the-table clash for Zarya Lugansk
KAMAZ next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2032
Gokhan Karaman damages knee ligaments — 47 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
Market11 Oct 2032
“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 Zarya Lugansk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match11 Oct 2032
Position 3 and 20 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market11 Oct 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolai Slotsager will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zarya Lugansk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout11 Oct 2032
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zarya Lugansk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The dugout11 Oct 2032
This is not rotation. Csongor Komáromi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zarya Lugansk is pretending otherwise.
Squad11 Oct 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roman Protsenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Oct 2032
Tate Hughes 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 dugout11 Oct 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolai Slotsager, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Oct 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gokhan Karaman
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zarya Lugansk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout4 Oct 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zarya Lugansk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings4 Oct 2032
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 6.99 for the rest of it.
Market4 Oct 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Polivanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zarya Lugansk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom4 Oct 2032
$227.1K of the owner's money at Zarya Lugansk
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.
Squad4 Oct 2032
Words at Zarya Lugansk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Protsenko 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.
Squad4 Oct 2032
Tate Hughes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout4 Oct 2032
The manager makes an example of Ilja Guschin
“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.
Market4 Oct 2032
A stepping stone, not a home, for Cavid Medvedev
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Zarya Lugansk were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Sep 2032
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zarya Lugansk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match13 Sep 2032
16 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings13 Sep 2032
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market13 Sep 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolai Slotsager will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zarya Lugansk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market13 Sep 2032
“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 Zarya Lugansk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom13 Sep 2032
Window shuts: 16 in, 20 out at Zarya Lugansk
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 20 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The dugout13 Sep 2032
This is not rotation. Csongor Komáromi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zarya Lugansk is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom13 Sep 2032
Uralets-TS will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Mamuka Gamsakhurdia has pre-agreed a move to Zarya Lugansk, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rubin have kept their man, and Zarya Lugansk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gokhan Karaman
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zarya Lugansk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout26 Jul 2032
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zarya Lugansk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings26 Jul 2032
Nikolay Sharapov, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.82
A mark of 7.82 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market26 Jul 2032
“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.
Market26 Jul 2032
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zarya Lugansk have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings26 Jul 2032
Denis Popenkov ran the middle of the pitch — 6.84
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 15 combined actions and a mark of 6.84, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout26 Jul 2032
This is not rotation. Kirill Signevich has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zarya Lugansk is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2032
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Words at Zarya Lugansk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandros Kedikoglou 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
Market9 Feb 2032
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Saturn waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zarya Lugansk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market9 Feb 2032
“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 Zarya Lugansk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Feb 2032
41 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Nikita Krivoruchko 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 dugout9 Feb 2032
This is not rotation. Kirill Signevich has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zarya Lugansk is pretending otherwise.
Squad9 Feb 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Roman Protsenko and Zarya Lugansk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets9 Feb 2032
Zarya Lugansk asked and Amkar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Yegor Kuznetsov 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.
Market9 Feb 2032
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Feb 2032
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Zarya Lugansk people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market2 Feb 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zarya Lugansk can pretend not to have heard.
Market2 Feb 2032
Bruno Orsic has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zarya Lugansk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout2 Feb 2032
This is not rotation. Csongor Komáromi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zarya Lugansk is pretending otherwise.
Squad2 Feb 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zarya Lugansk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
The owner puts $101.4K into Zarya Lugansk
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.
Squad2 Feb 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Roman Protsenko and Zarya Lugansk agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets2 Feb 2032
Zarya Lugansk asked and Amkar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Wojciech Szafranek 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
Triumph
Match1 Oct 2031
A 3‑1 win over KAMAZ, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match4 Oct 2031
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zarya Lugansk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings6 Oct 2031
Two goals and a mark of 8.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings6 Oct 2031
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings6 Oct 2031
No sign of nerves from Bruno Orsic at 20 — 8.27
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bruno Orsic did not need any: 8.27, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match4 Oct 2031
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Zarya Lugansk have 5 straight wins of it.
Squad6 Oct 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Wojciech Szafranek and Zarya Lugansk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Artem Grigorjev 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
Upbeat
Squad8 Sep 2031
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Zarya Lugansk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom8 Sep 2031
Zarya Lugansk close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad8 Sep 2031
58 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Artem Grigorjev 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.
Boardroom8 Sep 2031
$30.1K of the owner's money at Zarya Lugansk
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.
Transfer targets8 Sep 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Akhmat Grozny have kept their man, and Zarya Lugansk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad8 Sep 2031
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 dugout8 Sep 2031
“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.
The dugout8 Sep 2031
Kirill Signevich has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zarya Lugansk 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
Crisis
Market4 Aug 2031
“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 Zarya Lugansk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Aug 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zarya Lugansk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
$11.4K from the owner keeps Zarya Lugansk afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Match2 Aug 2031
Dinamo St Petersburg left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Yegor Kuznetsov 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 dugout4 Aug 2031
“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 dugout4 Aug 2031
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings4 Aug 2031
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.