Marked for Fedot Isakov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Jan 2027
25 matches without a win for Druzhba
The run now stands at 25, and the questions being asked around Druzhba are no longer polite ones.
Match11 Jan 2027
Druzhba are in real trouble now
Position 13, 7 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.
Market11 Jan 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
Druzhba cannot find the net
4 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match9 Jan 2027
Sevastopol left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
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The dugout11 Jan 2027
“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 dugout11 Jan 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oleg Yakovlev after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Druzhba's wait for a win
21 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Druzhba has to find a result from somewhere.
Match14 Dec 2026
Druzhba sink to position 13
7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market14 Dec 2026
“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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Druzhba — 7.69
1 for Alexandr Ageev, marked 7.69, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vladislav Anisimov, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Artem Gavrilenko 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
Match14 Nov 2026
17 matches without a win for Druzhba
The run now stands at 17, and the questions being asked around Druzhba are no longer polite ones.
Match16 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Druzhba
Position 13 and 6 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fedot Isakov 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Oleg Yakovlev chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luca Martinazzi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Oct 2026
15 matches without a win for Druzhba
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Druzhba are no longer polite ones.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
Supporters organise against the Druzhba 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Pressure builds in the Druzhba boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Druzhba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Druzhba
Luca Martinazzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Druzhba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valery Chekhov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fedot Isakov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 130% of everything Druzhba 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Druzhba rescue it on 85 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 85. Astrakhan had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
11 matches without a win for Druzhba
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Druzhba are no longer polite ones.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
Supporters organise against the Druzhba 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 2026
0‑3 to Spartak Nalchik, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market5 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Eddi Tsanava 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
3 matches without a goal for Druzhba
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Druzhba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Druzhba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Yushko 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 157% of the Druzhba 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
Fedot Isakov 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 Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Match5 Sep 2026
7 matches without a win for Druzhba
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Druzhba are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rodina keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luca Martinazzi and Druzhba agree another 3 years.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Eddi Tsanava 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rodina have kept their man, and Druzhba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 46 days on the sidelines for Ilja Vorontsov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Sep 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2026
Druzhba bow out of the cup
Legion go through and Druzhba go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Fedot Isakov could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 6.96
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 6.96, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Druzhba can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There were 6 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Druzhba's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Druzhba has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
No thanks: Maxim Yurin rejects the move
Druzhba had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market24 Aug 2026
The chase for Kirill Pluzhnikov ended with $20.0K changing hands and Astrakhan out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Druzhba
Eddi Tsanava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.