The Neftyanik Sentinel
Squad31 May 2027
Real improvement from Konstantin Anisimov at Neftyanik
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Konstantin Anisimov is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad31 May 2027
Tempers go at Neftyanik
Andrei Zhirkov 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.
Loan watch31 May 2027
Dmitriy Okulov wants to come home
“I did not go to Zarya Lugansk to sit and watch. I want to come back to Neftyanik and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 41 matches say the rest.
Squad31 May 2027
Valery Tolstoy 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.
Market31 May 2027
The Pavel Mamonov talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Neftyanik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout31 May 2027
Yuri Kharlamov 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 Yuri Kharlamov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
- The dugout The manager plants his flag on Andrey Suvorov
- Squad Danila Polunin is out on the grass again