Marked for Matvey Zhustjev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2027
72 days out for Dmitry Medvedev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Irtysh will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom24 May 2027
Pressure builds in the Irtysh boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad24 May 2027
Words exchanged at Irtysh
Alexandr Smirnov 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Irtysh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ezekiel Antony 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.
Boardroom24 May 2027
Irtysh counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Irtysh now.
The dugout24 May 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Textilschik is saying, and nobody at Irtysh is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Irtysh asked and Neftekhimik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Irtysh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Yanushkovskiy 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.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Danila Lukinykh
“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 dugout1 Feb 2027
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 Aznaur Geryugov is on it.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A season on the outside for Mark Isong
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Irtysh has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market1 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vladislav Poletaev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Open for business: Irtysh enter the window
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Irtysh can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Irtysh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ezekiel Antony was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ezekiel Antony, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The medical room confirms 29 days on the sidelines for Kirill Grishin, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Irtysh
Kirill Grishin 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
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 Aznaur Geryugov is on it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Sarmat Khubezhov 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vladislav Poletaev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market12 Oct 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Matvey Zhustjev may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
In brief
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Looking ahead
Looking ahead: Rodina 2 at home
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The dugout
Yury Bavin keeps his manager's vote
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irtysh can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Kolomna keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Irtysh
Alexandr Smirnov 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Irtysh asked and Neftyanik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match15 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Irtysh against Rodina 2
0‑1 to Rodina 2, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Irtysh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Belyaev 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
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 Dmitriy Borovikov to a room that had heard them before.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Neftyanik have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market17 Aug 2026
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Aznaur Geryugov, 33, rolls back the years — 7.93
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yury Bavin and Irtysh agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Irtysh
Alexandr Smirnov 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Irtysh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Roman Yanushkovskiy’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Irtysh.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 7.98 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Irtysh had the best player on the pitch.
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
Still no offer on the table, and Roman Yanushkovskiy’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Irtysh 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.