Marked for Savely Dyachkov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Savely Dyachkov
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Chelyabinsk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Apr 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 Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market5 Apr 2027
He is 14, and nobody at Chelyabinsk signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market5 Apr 2027
He is 14, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market5 Apr 2027
He is 14, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Savely Dyachkov
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Alexandr Zhirov 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Diego Aravena 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Savely Dyachkov
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Aravena 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
147% of the income goes out in wages at Chelyabinsk
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alexandr Zhirov
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Savely Dyachkov out for 16 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chelyabinsk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Alexandr Zhirov 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Sep 2026
Three points for Chelyabinsk, 1‑0 the final word against Rotor in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.21 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alexandr Zhirov
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Savely Dyachkov out for 23 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chelyabinsk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Sep 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 Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alexandr Zhirov
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chelyabinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Sep 2026
Georgy Gongadze wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Georgy Gongadze found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Arsenal Tula went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Savely Dyachkov out for 30 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chelyabinsk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Diego Aravena 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Tenyaev, and the manager let it.
Match12 Sep 2026
Arsenal Tula made Chelyabinsk work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.74 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Chelyabinsk had the best player on the pitch.
Market14 Sep 2026
He is 14, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.