Marked for Miron Belyaev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Sep 2027
6 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market20 Sep 2027
Miron Belyaev 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 Cherepovets can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Sep 2027
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Transfer targets20 Sep 2027
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets20 Sep 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match18 Sep 2027
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match18 Sep 2027
The goals have deserted Cherepovets
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Cherepovets can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Elnur Khalygov 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 targets20 Sep 2027
Cherepovets 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
88 days out for Mikhail Zykov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cherepovets will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad26 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market26 Apr 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anton Balashov signs something — a contract at Cherepovets or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2027
Mikhail Zykov breaks a bone — 95 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Serebryakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Miron Belyaev, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Yelisey Snegirev 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.
Market19 Apr 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cherepovets know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Cherepovets's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Cherepovets has to find a result from somewhere.
Market8 Feb 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cherepovets have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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 Cherepovets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match6 Feb 2027
The goals have deserted Cherepovets
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Cherepovets can tell you which week it ends in.
Match6 Feb 2027
The run at home goes on for Cherepovets
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
The offer went to Dinamo Vologda this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
$63.0K was the most the club would pay and Kuban were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Serebryakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Cherepovets's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Cherepovets has to find a result from somewhere.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match30 Jan 2027
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The offer went to Kuban this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Ignat Terekhovskiy 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 targets1 Feb 2027
Cherepovets offered $2.0K; Dinamo Vologda said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Berezov, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Anton Balashov has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Dec 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cherepovets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” David Berezov and Cherepovets agree another 2 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ignat Terekhovskiy 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Dmitry Serebryakov 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.
Match7 Dec 2026
Half the programme played, position 4, 26 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout7 Dec 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.