Marked for Fedor Semenov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout3 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Maxim Malysh has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Astrakhan is pretending otherwise.
Market3 Jul 2028
So close: Fedor Semenov’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Pobeda moved on, Fedor Semenov reports back to Astrakhan, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The owner puts $41.6K into Astrakhan
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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Mark Polushin 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.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
Astrakhan are $3.1M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Valentin Grishin's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Renat Malomusov 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.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
Volgar 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.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Vologda: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Apr 2028
Valentin Grishin damages knee ligaments — 49 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
This is not rotation. Dmitry Shilov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Astrakhan is pretending otherwise.
Market3 Apr 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sergey Dmitriev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Astrakhan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The owner puts $10.9K into Astrakhan
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.
The terraces3 Apr 2028
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match1 Apr 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kirill Pluzhnikov. 2‑0 against Torpedo Miass, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market3 Apr 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Rasul Zhangurazov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Astrakhan.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Astrakhan cannot sign anybody
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Mar 2028
63 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Astrakhan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.35, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market20 Mar 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Astrakhan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The terraces20 Mar 2028
At 23 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Astrakhan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yelisey Krivokhizhin 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 Mar 2028
Danila Zolotorenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The team sheet said everything about Alexandr Bolonin
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Alexandr Bolonin.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Mar 2028
Valentin Grishin damages knee ligaments — 70 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
Market13 Mar 2028
“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 Astrakhan, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Maxim Malysh has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Astrakhan is pretending otherwise.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Valentin Grishin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match11 Mar 2028
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom13 Mar 2028
The borrowing at Astrakhan reaches $2.7M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $2.7M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“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 dugout13 Mar 2028
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 1‑3 Vladlen Sidorov left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Valentin Grishin
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Astrakhan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market6 Mar 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Astrakhan can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Dmitry Shilov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Astrakhan is pretending otherwise.
Market6 Mar 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Astrakhan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Sergey Dmitriev has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Transfer targets6 Mar 2028
Astrakhan asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match4 Mar 2028
Sochi 2 left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Bolonin, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Yelisey Krivokhizhin 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
Crisis
Squad5 Apr 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Fedor Semenov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Astrakhan
Valentin Grishin 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.
Match3 Apr 2027
A bad afternoon for Astrakhan against Nart
0‑1 to Nart, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Renat Malomusov 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Ivan Kudryashov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ivan Kudryashov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Astrakhan have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Bulat Musaev
“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 dugout5 Apr 2027
Ilja Levchenkov 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.
Market5 Apr 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dmitry Shilov signs something — a contract at Astrakhan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fedor Galochkin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Astrakhan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Fedor Semenov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Fedor Semenov for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Astrakhan will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Astrakhan
Magomed Pirmagomedov 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Bulat Musaev 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.
Market12 Oct 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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Sochi 2 next, and one man in the Astrakhan dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Aly Tagiev 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.