Marked for Lev Mamaev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Jan 2031
Luka Klimov breaks a bone — 27 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market20 Jan 2031
“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 The request is on a desk at Metallurg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings20 Jan 2031
Evgeniy Shishov, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Dmitry Savin 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.
Squad20 Jan 2031
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Metallurg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Djabrail Taramov 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.
Boardroom20 Jan 2031
155% of the income goes out in wages at Metallurg
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 dugout20 Jan 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eddy Khalilzade, and the manager let it.
Player ratings20 Jan 2031
Shamil Gadjiev 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Dec 2030
“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.
Squad23 Dec 2030
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Shamil Gadjiev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Márk Hodonicki 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.
Boardroom23 Dec 2030
Wages eat 172% of everything Metallurg 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.
Match21 Dec 2030
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom23 Dec 2030
Metallurg are $6.9M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
“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.
Player ratings23 Dec 2030
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Nov 2030
“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.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Eddy Khalilzade 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.
Squad25 Nov 2030
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Márk Hodonicki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom25 Nov 2030
Wages eat 190% of everything Metallurg 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.
Match23 Nov 2030
0‑2 to Zenit Penza, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Igor Vaisbein, and the manager let it.
Boardroom25 Nov 2030
The borrowing at Metallurg reaches $6.8M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $6.8M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
Alan Sosa knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alan Sosa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Oct 2030
“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 Metallurg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Dmitry Savin 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.
Boardroom28 Oct 2030
195% of the income goes out in wages at Metallurg
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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Dias 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.
Boardroom28 Oct 2030
The borrowing at Metallurg reaches $6.7M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $6.7M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
The manager makes an example of Daniil Nikulin
“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.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Looking ahead28 Oct 2030
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Denis Semin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Metallurg needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market28 Oct 2030
The Dmitry Savin talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Metallurg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Oct 2030
Only the photograph left for Shamil Gadjiev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Shamil Gadjiev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Metallurg the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Dmitry Savin 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.
Player ratings14 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Djabrail Taramov 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.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
The manager makes an example of Alan Sosa
“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.
Market14 Oct 2030
“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 dugout14 Oct 2030
A promise honoured at Metallurg
Something was said to Lev Mamaev and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad14 Oct 2030
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Metallurg will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom12 Aug 2030
Metallurg interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Market12 Aug 2030
“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 Metallurg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Eddy Khalilzade and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Aug 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lev Mamaev and Metallurg agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Djabrail Taramov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match10 Aug 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout12 Aug 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
A loan enquiry to Zenit: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.