Marked for Marcel Junuzovic
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 May 2028
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chernomorets lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad8 May 2028
A fracture rules Dato Chertkoev out for 56 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chernomorets will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market8 May 2028
“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.
Squad8 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tom Bradshaw and Chernomorets agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 May 2028
Tom Bradshaw 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 Chernomorets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch8 May 2028
“I did not go to Kosmos to sit and watch. I want to come back to Chernomorets and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
Boardroom8 May 2028
The numbers do not look good at Chernomorets
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Market8 May 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Chernomorets, another week without a signature from Zaurbek Pliev.
The dugout8 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dmitry Kamenschikov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Apr 2028
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chernomorets lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market10 Apr 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Stanislav Utkin: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chernomorets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chernomorets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“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; Chernomorets are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zaur Tarba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch10 Apr 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Chernomorets, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Yakovlev, and the manager let it.
Boardroom10 Apr 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Chernomorets now.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kosmos may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad6 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kosmos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The owner puts $45.1K into Kosmos
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Transfer targets6 Mar 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chernomorets have kept their man, and Kosmos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Kosmos cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Danila Matvevnin 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.
Market6 Mar 2028
“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.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
Yegor Axionov 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 Yegor Axionov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Feb 2028
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Daniil Goncharov decided nobody was going anywhere. Zvezda had no time left to answer.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Kosmos
Nikita Antipov 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 targets21 Feb 2028
Kosmos asked and Orel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match19 Feb 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniil Goncharov. 1‑0 against Zvezda, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Boardroom21 Feb 2028
125% of the income goes out in wages at Kosmos
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.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.12, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
A loan enquiry to Khimik: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
Irtysh 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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Transfer targets
A loan move for Marcel Junuzovic is in the works
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Ilsur Valeev has become a man the manager trusts
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Feb 2028
Matt Zver puts it in writing
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Arsenal Tula keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market14 Feb 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chernomorets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chernomorets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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 targets14 Feb 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Znamya Truda have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match12 Feb 2028
Fakel left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Daan Vekemans
“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.
Market14 Feb 2028
The phone has started ringing about Timur Alikberov again, and this time the name on the line is Kvant. Chernomorets are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Jan 2028
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market17 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Up for the corner, and Ilja Zhigulev delivers — 7.93
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ilja Zhigulev scored, was marked 7.93, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market17 Jan 2028
Maxim Khalilov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chernomorets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Tom Bradshaw 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 Chernomorets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Zaur Tarba 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
“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 Chernomorets know it.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Arseny Klimov on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces8 Nov 2027
Anger at Chernomorets spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market8 Nov 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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Krasian Kolev 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Dato Chertkoev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
Zaur Tarba gets it from the manager
“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.
Match6 Nov 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Chernomorets can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Nov 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Szabolcs Kátai 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.
Match30 Oct 2027
A 1‑0 win over Ufa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes of Daan Vekemans at his very best
Marked 8.01. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Chernomorets.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Wages eat 121% of everything Chernomorets 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Szabolcs Kátai
“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.
Market1 Nov 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Sep 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tver waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Chernomorets is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad6 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chernomorets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Krasian Kolev 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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rubin have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“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; Chernomorets are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Vilmos Jován
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
96% of the income goes out in wages at Chernomorets
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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
Chernomorets have made the call to Rubin. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Chernomorets will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces19 Jul 2027
The mood at Chernomorets has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market19 Jul 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Marcel Junuzovic: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chernomorets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market19 Jul 2027
Kirill Morozov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chernomorets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market19 Jul 2027
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Valeri Stoyanov is a Chernomorets player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Ilja Zhigulev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
5 academy graduates step up at Chernomorets
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Konovalov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom31 May 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Chernomorets
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad31 May 2027
Milan Majstorović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Chernomorets can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Kirill Morozov
“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 dugout31 May 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad31 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tjaš Črešnar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 May 2027
“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.
The dugout17 May 2027
“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.
Squad17 May 2027
Alexey Kenyaikin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 May 2027
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom17 May 2027
127% of the income goes out in wages at Chernomorets
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.
Squad17 May 2027
Zaur Tarba 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.