Marked for Nil Ushakov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Jul 2028
“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 targets3 Jul 2028
The deal with Torpedo Miass 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.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Vologda keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexandros Kedikoglou and Zarya Lugansk agree another 4 years.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The owner puts $60.0K into Zarya Lugansk
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.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Nikita Antipov 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zarya Lugansk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Jul 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Henrik Kojen Stubbe has his answer from Zarya Lugansk; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Nov 2027
No end in sight to Zarya Lugansk's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zarya Lugansk has to find a result from somewhere.
Match20 Nov 2027
6 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Nikita Antipov 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.
Match20 Nov 2027
0‑2 to Legion, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Gor Ghazaryan 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 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Alexey Pavlov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout22 Nov 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.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Yegory Achinov asks for a word with the manager
“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 dugout22 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Jul 2027
7 matches without a win for Zarya Lugansk
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Zarya Lugansk are no longer polite ones.
Market2 Aug 2027
Nil Ushakov 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 Zarya Lugansk can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Nikita Antipov 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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 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.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stepan Asharin, and the manager let it.
Market2 Aug 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Zarya Lugansk, another week without a signature from Nikita Antipov.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
7.67, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Zarya Lugansk had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Dinamo Vologda have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jul 2027
Semyon Zaets has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zarya Lugansk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Semyon Zaets has agreed terms with Chernomorets for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Nikita Antipov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Zarya Lugansk asked and Sibir said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
Wages eat 93% of everything Zarya Lugansk 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Gor Ghazaryan 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Alania have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Tver: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Zarya Lugansk have made the call to Alania. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.