Marked for Dmitri Shestakov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Jun 2027
Oleg Bulatnikov 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.
Boardroom28 Jun 2027
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at PSK Pervorechenskoe now.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Uralets-TS have kept their man, and PSK Pervorechenskoe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Kosmachev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
A loan move for Nikita Savin is in the works
PSK Pervorechenskoe have made the call to Rodina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abu-Muslim Khamkhoev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market28 Jun 2027
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what PSK Pervorechenskoe could get for him.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Dmitri Shestakov is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Market28 Jun 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Artem Terentjev signs something — a contract at PSK Pervorechenskoe or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom31 May 2027
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at PSK Pervorechenskoe now.
The dugout31 May 2027
“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 dugout31 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yaroslav Voronkov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 May 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Aleksey Chesnokov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad3 May 2027
A fracture rules Artyom Smolnikov out for 33 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason PSK Pervorechenskoe will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad3 May 2027
Oleg Bulatnikov 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.
Boardroom3 May 2027
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Match1 May 2027
0‑1 to Astrakhan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout3 May 2027
“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.
Squad3 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Kosmachev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 May 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout3 May 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Oleg Bulatnikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
174% of the income goes out in wages at PSK Pervorechenskoe
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Vladimir Kosmachev 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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Daniil Vaulin 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 Daniil Vaulin is on it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Modestas Simkus, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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.” Aleksey Chesnokov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Defensive actions: 14, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
14 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at PSK Pervorechenskoe
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match2 Jan 2027
4 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
3 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Shakhter Donetsk left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Nikita Gorunkov
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Kosmachev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Aleksey Chesnokov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at PSK Pervorechenskoe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. PSK Pervorechenskoe lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Nov 2026
Oleg Bulatnikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match28 Nov 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jan Sakson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
149% of the income goes out in wages at PSK Pervorechenskoe
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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniil Vaulin, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Nov 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
Daniil Vaulin 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 Daniil Vaulin is on it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Dmitri Shestakov's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, PSK Pervorechenskoe have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match31 Oct 2026
Pobeda left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at PSK Pervorechenskoe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Sakson 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
149% of the income goes out in wages at PSK Pervorechenskoe
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Alexey Bolshakov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at PSK Pervorechenskoe, another week without a signature from Artem Terentjev.
The dugout2 Nov 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
Daniil Vaulin 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 Daniil Vaulin is on it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Modestas Simkus
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Oleg Bulatnikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Alexey Bolshakov 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout5 Oct 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.” Aleksey Chesnokov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 13, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match3 Oct 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Druzhba came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zakhar Devyatkin, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The deal with Alania is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jan Sakson and PSK Pervorechenskoe agree another 3 years.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Oleg Bulatnikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
PSK Pervorechenskoe asked and Dinamo Vladivostok said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at PSK Pervorechenskoe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Sakson 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. PSK Pervorechenskoe will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at PSK Pervorechenskoe, another week without a signature from Artem Terentjev.
Market7 Sep 2026
Dawid Śmigielski is 18, and PSK Pervorechenskoe 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.