Marked for Timur Nikolov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Nov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Dmitry Starodub 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Sevastopol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agustín Morel 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Timur Nikolov
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexandr Popov and Sevastopol agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artem Stepanovich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Vladislav Kucheiko’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sevastopol needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market16 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Artem Stepanovich’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Yury Yakunin 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 Yury Yakunin is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Artem Stepanovich and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Sevastopol did not have in the autumn.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Agustín Morel 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.
Match9 Nov 2026
Halfway: Sevastopol sit in position 8
17 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Andrey Kabaev
“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 dugout9 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Konstantin Muratov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sevastopol, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market9 Nov 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Oct 2026
“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 Sevastopol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Sevastopol's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sevastopol has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 18 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 33, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Donato Ianzano 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Sevastopol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Kabaev 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Konstantin Muratov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Match17 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for Sevastopol?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Rostov 2? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad12 Oct 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 Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Sevastopol
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Stepanovich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Timur Nikolov, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Yury Maximov 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
A promise honoured at Sevastopol
Something was said to Kirill Chemakin and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Market12 Oct 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Rostislav Tyschenko has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sevastopol.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Market12 Oct 2026
The name of Redvan Osmanov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sevastopol say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Alania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Alania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Batraz Gurtsiev 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Timur Nikolov has left for Sevastopol in a $19.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Batraz Gurtsiev. 2‑0 against Dinamo Kirov, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Anzor Amiraliev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Sarmat Ogoev 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 Alania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Spartak Nalchik ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Artem Stepanovich 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Sevastopol asked and Dinamo Makhachkala said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match22 Aug 2026
Nart left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Sevastopol
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrey Kabaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Lev Potapov
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
A stepping stone, not a home, for Timur Nikolov
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Sevastopol were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 Aug 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 Alania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. SKA Khabarovsk have kept their man, and Alania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Alania
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anzor Amiraliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ivan Matyushenko did the work nobody counts — 6.93
11 combined actions and 6.93. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Market17 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Timur Nikolov again, and this time the name on the line is Saturn. Alania are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Redvan Osmanov yet — 7.92
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $20.5K — a club that wants Timur Nikolov enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A hand in 2 of them from Bekkhan Aliev — 7.80
Marked 7.80. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Sevastopol have gone to Alania with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cherepovets have kept their man, and Sevastopol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 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 Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Maxim Isaev 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.