Marked for Bogdan Belyaev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
Andrey Lomash 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 Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
18 days out for Bogdan Belyaev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Irkutsk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Irkutsk
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Osman Gasanbekov and Irkutsk agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Stephen Adayilo 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
3 matches without a goal for Irkutsk
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Irkutsk asked and Yenisey said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match29 Aug 2026
Torpedo Vladimir left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Aug 2026
Nowhere to hide for Irkutsk
0‑4 against Baltika 2, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match19 Aug 2026
Irkutsk out of the cup
Saturn ended it 0‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Irkutsk are taken apart by Saturn — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Chaika, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Irkutsk's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Irkutsk has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stephen Adayilo and Irkutsk agree another 3 years.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Stephen Adayilo 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 targets24 Aug 2026
$39.0K was the most the club would pay and Volna were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $82.2K — a club that wants Artem Meshalkin enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Irkutsk have gone to Metallurg with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad10 Aug 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 Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Dinamo St Petersburg wanted more than $64.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match8 Aug 2026
Yenisey 2 left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Platon Mikheev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bogdan Belyaev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.