Marked for Mansur Dil'murat
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
Igor' Shatskii 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Shakhter
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Savkiv was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
85% of the income goes out in wages at Shakhter
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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Älikhan Israilov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Shakhter 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.
Market30 Nov 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mansur Dil'murat may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
Lucas Rocha in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
“I watch every Shakhter game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kairat runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad23 Nov 2026
6 new faces, and Shakhter are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Shakhter
Alexandr Gagloev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Shakhter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Savkiv 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Shakhter
9 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.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“I watch every Shakhter game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kairat runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Maksim Galkin gets picked when it counts
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 Maksim Galkin is on it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 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 Shakhter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Bohdan Savkiv 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 dugout28 Sep 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.