Marked for Arseny Aliyev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Dec 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Arseny Aliyev
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Khimik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings17 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Dec 2029
“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.
Match15 Dec 2029
The wait goes on for Khimik
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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Khimik
Kirill Myrzakov 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.
Match15 Dec 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
The manager makes an example of Nikita Zavjalov
“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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Khimik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleg Kozachenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom17 Dec 2029
The borrowing at Khimik reaches $6.0M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $6.0M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Dec 2029
Arseny Aliyev damages knee ligaments — 48 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
Market10 Dec 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Khimik, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Words exchanged at Khimik
Kirill Myrzakov 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.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Words at Khimik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleg Kozachenko 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.
Squad10 Dec 2029
39 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market10 Dec 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
“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.
Looking ahead10 Dec 2029
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nikita Zavjalov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Khimik needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Dec 2029
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Khimik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings3 Dec 2029
Iago Arévalo, 21, steals the show — 7.65
Marked 7.65 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings3 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Dec 2029
The medical room confirms 31 days on the sidelines for Daniil Knyazev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Khimik
Oleg Trofimov 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.
Match1 Dec 2029
Oleg Kozachenko scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Nosta, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
$116.9K from the owner keeps Khimik afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Nov 2029
Arseny Aliyev damages knee ligaments — 62 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
Market26 Nov 2029
“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.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words exchanged at Khimik
Oleg Trofimov 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.
Match24 Nov 2029
0‑2 to Krylya Sovetov 2, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Oleg Kozachenko 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.
Boardroom26 Nov 2029
Wages eat 116% of everything Khimik 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.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Nov 2029
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Khimik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Tempers go at Khimik
Kirill Myrzakov 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Khimik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleg Kozachenko 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.
Boardroom19 Nov 2029
The Khimik debt reaches $6.0M
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.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.36 on the card, and the Khimik support went home talking about one name.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Alexey Trifonov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Looking ahead19 Nov 2029
Khimik take on the side everybody is chasing
Krylya Sovetov 2 arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
Iago Arévalo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Khimik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Nov 2029
Arseny Aliyev damages knee ligaments — 76 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 76 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.
Match10 Nov 2029
7‑0, and Oleg Trofimov took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Khimik tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.08, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.24, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
Iago Arévalo, 21, steals the show — 8.27
Marked 8.27 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market12 Nov 2029
“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.
Match10 Nov 2029
Nobody wants to play Khimik right now
3 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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words exchanged at Khimik
Kirill Myrzakov 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.
Match10 Nov 2029
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Khimik and Chelyabinsk 2, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Nov 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Arseny Aliyev
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Khimik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
Iago Arévalo, 21, steals the show — 7.96
Marked 7.96 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad5 Nov 2029
59 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad5 Nov 2029
A falling-out at Khimik
Kirill Myrzakov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
The owner puts $105.7K into Khimik
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 terraces5 Nov 2029
Khimik supporters have found a favourite in Iago Arévalo
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Iago Arévalo 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.
Match3 Nov 2029
Volna made Khimik work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
Khimik 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.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.18, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
In brief
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Player ratings
One of those days for Oleg Kozachenko
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Squad
Words at Khimik training over how hard people work
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The dugout
The view from the dugout