Marked for Ivan Protasov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Maxim Tarasov out for 101 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Miass will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match21 Dec 2026
Every point is an argument now for Torpedo Miass
Position 6 and 10 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Denis Zamyatin 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Daniil Borisov 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Alexey Larin 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 Alexey Larin is on it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Ivan Protasov
“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.
Market21 Dec 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Torpedo Miass know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market21 Dec 2026
Torpedo Miass have made Mark Isong available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
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.
Market7 Dec 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Torpedo Miass, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Alexandr Balakhonov 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ivan Protasov 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager's exit leaves Roman Kovalev exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Roman Kovalev is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Mark Isong knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mark Isong trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Torpedo Miass says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
Market7 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ivan Kotelnikov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Rodina 2, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market21 Sep 2026
Dmitry Pavlov 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 Torpedo Miass can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Torpedo Miass had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at CSKA Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Torpedo Miass
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Torpedo Miass are no longer polite ones.
Market21 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torpedo Miass is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Dmitry Kuzmin 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Semyon Stolbov
“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.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Torpedo Miass dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Aug 2026
Every point is an argument now for Torpedo Miass
Position 6 and 5 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Dmitry Kuzmin 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 Torpedo Miass can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Transfer targets31 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mark Isong, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Torpedo Miass
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad31 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 Torpedo Miass this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Tikhon Merzlyakov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Market31 Aug 2026
Astrakhan are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Torpedo Miass will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Torpedo Miass have done the hard part with Mashuk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Vladimir Uljanovskiy 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denis Zamyatin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout17 Aug 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.