Marked for Ramil Gainullin
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2027
14 matches without a win for Chertanovo
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Chertanovo are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Daniil Timofeyev has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Chertanovo can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Chertanovo
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Chertanovo is running low.
Market4 Jan 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 The request is on a desk at Chertanovo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
This is not rotation. Vadim Agafontsev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Chertanovo is pretending otherwise.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Vladimir Bartasevich and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
He is 20 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Chertanovo
13 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.
Market21 Dec 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 Chertanovo can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Danila Manyak is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Chertanovo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Polyakov 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Dinamo Vologda left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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 dugout21 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniil Timofeyev after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Semyon Semenov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Semyon Semenov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Chertanovo
10 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
Supporters organise against the Chertanovo board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad30 Nov 2026
There were 6 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ivan Polyakov 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
119% of the income goes out in wages at Chertanovo
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
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
German Mikadze 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
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match21 Nov 2026
9 matches without a win for Chertanovo
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Chertanovo are no longer polite ones.
Market23 Nov 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 Chertanovo can pretend not to have heard.
Match21 Nov 2026
Artem Selyukov scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Yenisey 2, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ramil Gainullin 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 dugout23 Nov 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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Daniil Timofeyev to a room that had heard them before.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Chertanovo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakhar Yevdachev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zakhar Yevdachev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Chertanovo
A 0‑3 beating by Spartak Moscow 2 was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market5 Oct 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Chertanovo
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Chertanovo
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Chertanovo can tell you which week it ends in.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Chertanovo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Polyakov 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 148% of everything Chertanovo earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ramil Gainullin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Znamya Truda are out and Chertanovo go through, 3‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Artem Selyukov, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Chertanovo asked and Rodina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Chertanovo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Polyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.51 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Veles 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The plan did not have a place for Semyon Semenov
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The dugout
Artem Selyukov gets picked when it counts