Marked for Bogdan Romanov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 May 2028
Szymon Kurek has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Irtysh they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 May 2028
At 21, Georgy Makarov is already the best thing here
An average of 7.17 in a first team he is several years too young for. Irtysh have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad8 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yury Bavin and Irtysh agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 May 2028
Tempers go at Irtysh
Alexandr Smirnov 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.
Boardroom8 May 2028
The owner puts $96.4K into Irtysh
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
The dugout8 May 2028
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 dugout8 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Kirill Fedorov
“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.
Market8 May 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Irtysh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad8 May 2028
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Irtysh would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 May 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Irtysh they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad1 May 2028
Words exchanged at Irtysh
Alexandr Smirnov 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.
Boardroom1 May 2028
Irtysh cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Loan watch1 May 2028
“I did not go to Khimik to sit and watch. I want to come back to Irtysh and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout1 May 2028
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 dugout1 May 2028
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Irtysh has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market1 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alexandr Smirnov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Match1 May 2028
Irtysh have something to play for
Position 4 on 46 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Mar 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Irtysh is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Mar 2028
He is 21, he is averaging 7.17, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Tempers go at Irtysh
Grzegorz Wawrzyński 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.
Market13 Mar 2028
He is 20, and nobody at Irtysh signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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 Sedrak Movsisyan is on it.
Squad13 Mar 2028
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market13 Mar 2028
At 34, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Cezary Wołowiec
“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.
Market13 Mar 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Irtysh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 7.99, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Dominik Pikulik arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Dominik Pikulik has, at Irtysh, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Dominik Pikulik commits to Irtysh for another 3 years.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$33.0K on the table at Khimik. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Irtysh
Alexandr Smirnov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match8 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Artemy Maleev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Irtysh.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Aleksandr Arsenyev 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bogdan Romanov 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
One of our own: Pyotr Shilov joins the Irtysh first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Pyotr Shilov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.