Marked for Vyacheslav Zhirkov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Jan 2030
Tyumen are in real trouble now
Position 8, 11 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tyumen may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 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 Tyumen know it.
Squad14 Jan 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tyumen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market14 Jan 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ivan Zazvonkin’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
Matvey Osipov 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 Matvey Osipov is on it.
Squad14 Jan 2030
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Tyumen says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
Market14 Jan 2030
The clock does Nikita Yanovich’s negotiating for him
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Tyumen could ask drops and the wages Nikita Yanovich can ask rise.
Market14 Jan 2030
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Vyacheslav Zhirkov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces31 Dec 2029
The mood at Tyumen 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.
Market31 Dec 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tyumen can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Dec 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tyumen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Alexandr Bem 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 Tyumen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Damir Talikin 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.
Boardroom31 Dec 2029
No signings allowed at Tyumen
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tyumen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market31 Dec 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tyumen know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
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 Miroslav Khrenov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom24 Dec 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Tyumen
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Tyumen is running low.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
Yuri Bondarenko: 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.” Tyumen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad24 Dec 2029
A falling-out at Tyumen
Alexandr Bem and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Damir Talikin, and the manager let it.
Boardroom24 Dec 2029
The borrowing at Tyumen reaches $4.9M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $4.9M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Boardroom24 Dec 2029
Wages swallow 107% of the Tyumen income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tyumen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market24 Dec 2029
The Alexandr Bem story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Bem signs something — a contract at Tyumen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
Maxim Yedapin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tyumen will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces3 Dec 2029
Supporters organise against the Tyumen board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market3 Dec 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tyumen can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
“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.
Market3 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tyumen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
$213.1K from the owner keeps Tyumen afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Words exchanged at Tyumen
Pavel Shakuro 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.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Market3 Dec 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom26 Nov 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Tyumen
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market26 Nov 2029
Matvey Osipov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tyumen can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Nov 2029
A row about effort at Tyumen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Damir Talikin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom26 Nov 2029
136% of the income goes out in wages at Tyumen
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.
Boardroom26 Nov 2029
The Tyumen debt reaches $5.0M
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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
A falling-out at Tyumen
Artem Vorobjov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Arseniy Yarygin, and the manager let it.
Market26 Nov 2029
The Alexandr Bem story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Bem signs something — a contract at Tyumen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
Maxim Yedapin 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 Maxim Yedapin is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Nov 2029
Tyumen sink to position 8
11 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match19 Nov 2029
Tyumen finish in position 8
11 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Market19 Nov 2029
“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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
There were 7 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.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tyumen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match17 Nov 2029
5 matches without a win for Tyumen
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Tyumen are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Damir Talikin 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Leonid Popov 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 Tyumen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Nov 2029
Dinamo Moscow 2 left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces5 Nov 2029
Anger at Tyumen 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.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market5 Nov 2029
“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.
Market5 Nov 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tyumen they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Alexandr Bem 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 Tyumen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
The owner puts $222.9K into Tyumen
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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
A row about effort at Tyumen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Damir Talikin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match3 Nov 2029
A bad afternoon for Tyumen against Volgar
1‑2 to Volgar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
Tyumen 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Oct 2029
“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.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Damir Talikin 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.
Match13 Oct 2029
A 2‑1 win over Dinamo Kirov, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad15 Oct 2029
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
Ivan Zazvonkin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Oct 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tyumen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Daniil Fedoseev on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vyacheslav Zhirkov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces8 Oct 2029
Supporters organise against the Tyumen board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match3 Oct 2029
Tyumen out of the cup
Lokomotiv Moscow ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Alexandr Bem: 13 seasons and counting
250 appearances across 13 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Tyumen know exactly what they have.
Market8 Oct 2029
“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.
Market8 Oct 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gavriil Artemov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tyumen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom8 Oct 2029
The owner puts $224.1K into Tyumen
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.
Match6 Oct 2029
Tyumen cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Damir Talikin 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.
Boardroom8 Oct 2029
Tyumen 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jun 2029
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tyumen lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Damir Talikin 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
A falling-out at Tyumen
Leonid Popov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
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 dugout25 Jun 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tyumen, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market25 Jun 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikita Yanovich signs something — a contract at Tyumen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 May 2029
The mood at Tyumen 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.
Boardroom21 May 2029
Pressure builds in the Tyumen boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market21 May 2029
“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.
Market21 May 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tyumen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 May 2029
Damir Talikin 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.
Boardroom21 May 2029
Tyumen 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.
Squad21 May 2029
The medical room confirms 33 days on the sidelines for Vyacheslav Zhirkov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad21 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tyumen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market21 May 2029
The name of Damir Talikin keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Tyumen say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 May 2029
Tyumen sink to position 8
17 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Damir Talikin 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 dugout14 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vyacheslav Zhirkov, and the manager let it.
Market14 May 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alexandr Bem’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout14 May 2029
Maxim Yedapin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tyumen will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad14 May 2029
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Tyumen says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
Timur Blinov has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Tyumen can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market2 Apr 2029
“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 Tyumen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
$203.8K of the owner's money at Tyumen
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Damir Talikin 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Tempers go at Tyumen
Vyacheslav 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.
Market2 Apr 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Tyumen, another week without a signature from Alexandr Bezchasnyuk.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
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 Alexandr Bezchasnyuk is on it.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
Andrija Stojkovic loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Andrija Stojkovic's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Market2 Apr 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nikita Yanovich’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.