Marked for Dmitriy Lapin
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces24 Jan 2028
Anger at Irtysh 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nikita Zhustjev
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Irtysh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Irtysh
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Irtysh is running low.
Squad24 Jan 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 Irtysh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
Wages eat 146% of everything Irtysh 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Edgar Segovia 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Dec 2027
Every point is an argument now for Irtysh
Position 6 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Gennady Shevchenko has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad6 Dec 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 Irtysh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
Irtysh counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Irtysh now.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Edgar Segovia 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitriy Lapin, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Irtysh
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Irtysh is running low.
The terraces29 Nov 2027
The mood at Irtysh 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Irtysh
Alexandr Smirnov 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.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
186% of the income goes out in wages at Irtysh
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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Aznaur Geryugov 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Dmitriy Lapin asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Oct 2027
Vitaly Ustinov damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market25 Oct 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 Irtysh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Oct 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; Irtysh are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
Wages eat 128% of everything Irtysh 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
26 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Edgar Segovia 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
Squad10 Aug 2026
Alan Villarruel gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alan Villarruel has just signed for Irtysh, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gonzalo Masuero and Irtysh agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Irtysh
Alexandr Smirnov 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 ratings10 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.78 on the card, and the Irtysh support went home talking about one name.
Market10 Aug 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Ivan Butusov is 14, and Irtysh have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market10 Aug 2026
He is 14, and nobody at Irtysh signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Dmitriy Lapin is 14, and Irtysh have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Match8 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Irtysh training over how hard people work
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Player ratings
The referee tires of Yury Bavin