Marked for Yakov Zinovyev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Jan 2029
Tempers go at Orel
Artemy Ositsin 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.
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
Orel 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Fedot Volkov
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Dec 2028
No end in sight to Orel's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Orel has to find a result from somewhere.
Match30 Dec 2028
Orel cannot find the net
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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Dec 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Vadim Averkiev
“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.
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
Orel 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Dec 2028
No end in sight to Orel's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Orel has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match16 Dec 2028
Orel cannot find the net
4 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.
Match16 Dec 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Tempers go at Orel
Konstantin Ermakov 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Yakov Zinovyev
“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
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market2 Oct 2028
“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 Orel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Tempers go at Orel
Vadim Averkiev 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.
Match30 Sep 2028
3 matches without a goal for Orel
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
136% of the income goes out in wages at Orel
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.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
The Orel debt reaches $4.4M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Eduard Obukhov and Orel agree another 3 years.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Arsen Agakhanov 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.
Match30 Sep 2028
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Rotor 2 will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Sep 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aleksei Lisitsin and Orel agree another 3 years.
Squad18 Sep 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Orel told Evgeny Ushakov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
The numbers do not look good at Orel
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.
Match9 Sep 2028
Three points for Orel, 2‑0 the final word against Znamya Truda in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Daniil Arsentjev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad11 Sep 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.
Market11 Sep 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vyacheslav Gordienko’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad11 Sep 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Danila Solovyov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Dmitry Merkulov
“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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Evgeny Ushakov 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.
Market31 Jul 2028
The clock does Igor Bugaenko’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Orel could ask drops and the wages Igor Bugaenko can ask rise.
Match29 Jul 2028
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Zenit Penza defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Every debut is a small story about the future: Yakov Zinovyev, 15 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.