The Neftekhimik Gazette
Squad7 Oct 2030
The knee: Magomed Musalov out for 83 days
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Neftekhimik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom7 Oct 2030
Pressure builds in the Neftekhimik boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match2 Oct 2030
Cup progress for Neftekhimik
A 2‑1 win over Sokol, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Boardroom7 Oct 2030
the manager has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Neftekhimik can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
A brace, and Arseny Vasilenko takes the afternoon — 9.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Arseny Vasilenko provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad7 Oct 2030
A career in one shirt: Andrey Golubev
12 seasons and 356 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
Nobody could get near Andrey Nikitin
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Oct 2030
A one-man rearguard from Rasul Mitsaev
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.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
Edoardo Ceccarelli, 21, steals the show — 7.60
Marked 7.60 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
In brief
- Squad Andrey Nikitin signs on for more
- Boardroom The owner puts $487.1K into Neftekhimik
- The terraces Neftekhimik supporters have found a favourite in Arseny Vasilenko