Marked for Matvey Chugunov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Murom
Denis Faizullin 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.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
Murom counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Murom now.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Gadjimurad Abdullaev 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.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
119% of the income goes out in wages at Murom
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 dugout27 Dec 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Denis Faizullin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
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 Evgeny Livadnov is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad13 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matvey Chugunov
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Murom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match13 Sep 2027
Nobody above Murom
First, on 19 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Match11 Sep 2027
Murom cannot stop winning
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.95, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match11 Sep 2027
Murom make home a hard place to visit
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Window shuts: 10 in, 10 out at Murom
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Murom
Denis Faizullin 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 targets13 Sep 2027
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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Murom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gadjimurad Abdullaev 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Sep 2027
Matvey Chugunov damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Murom counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Murom now.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Murom training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Philipp Dvoretskov 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
150% of the income goes out in wages at Murom
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 dugout6 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Faizullin, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead6 Sep 2027
The big one: Kaluga come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Murom will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Squad6 Sep 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 Murom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Murom have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad30 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matvey Chugunov
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Murom lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match28 Aug 2027
Nobody wants to play Murom right now
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Match28 Aug 2027
Murom make home a hard place to visit
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Murom
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Philipp Dvoretskov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Murom go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match28 Aug 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Gadjimurad Abdullaev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Murom.
Squad30 Aug 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 Murom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad23 Aug 2027
Matvey Chugunov damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Match18 Aug 2027
Cup progress for Murom
A 2‑0 win over Veles, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match18 Aug 2027
Murom make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Murom have 4 straight wins of it.
Match18 Aug 2027
Nobody wins at Murom
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad23 Aug 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 Murom this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces23 Aug 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Bogdan Kondramashin has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Ninety minutes of Rasul Guseinov at his very best
Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Murom.
The dugout23 Aug 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.
In brief
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
The dugout
No place in the plan for Ruslan Bolov
-
The dugout
Alikadi Saidov gets picked when it counts