Marked for Dmitry Shantaliy
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match1 Apr 2030
27 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Yasson Mandzukas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Apr 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Zarya Lugansk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom1 Apr 2030
Nobody arrives at Zarya Lugansk until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Zarya Lugansk this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
“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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at Zarya Lugansk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Orsic 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Zarya Lugansk would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Market1 Apr 2030
“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.
Market1 Apr 2030
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Zarya Lugansk money.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jan 2030
65 days out for Eduard Kryvtsov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Zarya Lugansk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market28 Jan 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Zarya Lugansk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2030
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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Yasson Mandzukas 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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Zarya Lugansk know it.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2030
A loan enquiry to Arsenal Tula: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2030
A loan enquiry to Ural: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout28 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Shantaliy, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Orsic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Oct 2029
The run at home goes on for Zarya Lugansk
12 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match20 Oct 2029
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Zarya Lugansk did not have in the autumn.
Squad22 Oct 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yasson Mandzukas and Zarya Lugansk agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Yasson Mandzukas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom22 Oct 2029
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
“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.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Orsic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Alexey Davydov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Zarya Lugansk dressing room was either.
Squad22 Oct 2029
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Zarya Lugansk will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2029
Chaika are out and Zarya Lugansk go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad8 Oct 2029
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Christopher Farrugia: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
No sign of nerves from Maxim Serov at 21 — 7.62
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Maxim Serov did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match6 Oct 2029
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Bulat Tsaliev 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.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Edgar Manukyan arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Edgar Manukyan has, at Zarya Lugansk, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Wojciech Szafranek 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 terraces8 Oct 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sevastjan Kachura has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match6 Oct 2029
Three points for Zarya Lugansk, 1‑0 the final word against Baltika 2 in a contest settled by the finer margins.