Marked for Viktor Grigoryev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom18 Jul 2033
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Squad18 Jul 2033
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alexandr Peshkov
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sibir lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match16 Jul 2033
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Boardroom18 Jul 2033
A stranger takes charge at Sibir
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
Boardroom18 Jul 2033
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Player ratings18 Jul 2033
Vladimir Laptev pops up at the right end — 7.94
7.94, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Player ratings18 Jul 2033
Up for the corner, and Viktor Grigoryev delivers — 7.50
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Viktor Grigoryev scored, was marked 7.50, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market18 Jul 2033
“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 targets18 Jul 2033
Everything agreed with Kuban, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
In brief
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Player ratings
A hand in 2 of them from Nikolay Ershov — 7.47
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Squad
Words exchanged at Sibir
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Boardroom
5 academy graduates step up at Sibir
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Jul 2033
111 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sibir lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom4 Jul 2033
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom4 Jul 2033
Emergency meeting at Sibir
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Market4 Jul 2033
“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 targets4 Jul 2033
Everything agreed with Dinamo Stavropol, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad4 Jul 2033
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets4 Jul 2033
Sibir asked and Khimik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout4 Jul 2033
This is not rotation. Vlad Kalinovsky has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Sibir is pretending otherwise.
Squad4 Jul 2033
Words at Sibir training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joel Dost 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Jun 2033
139 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sibir lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom6 Jun 2033
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market6 Jun 2033
“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.
Squad6 Jun 2033
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniil Petrunin commits to Sibir for another 2 years.
Squad6 Jun 2033
Tempers go at Sibir
Nemanja Andrijanić 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.
Squad6 Jun 2033
“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; Sibir are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout6 Jun 2033
This is not rotation. Vlad Kalinovsky has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Sibir is pretending otherwise.
The dugout6 Jun 2033
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dmitry Polukhin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout6 Jun 2033
Raphael Ulmer without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Raphael Ulmer was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 May 2033
Tempers go at Sibir
Nemanja Andrijanić 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.
The dugout9 May 2033
The manager makes an example of Vlad Bobylev
“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.
Market9 May 2033
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sibir know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market9 May 2033
The clock does Dmitry Polukhin’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Sibir could ask drops and the wages Dmitry Polukhin can ask rise.
The dugout9 May 2033
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sibir. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market9 May 2033
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Joel Dost may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout9 May 2033
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ludwig Lindelof trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom9 May 2033
The Sibir production line keeps running
52 graduates out of an academy now rated 4 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
Squad9 May 2033
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Sibir the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 May 2033
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Sibir can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match30 Apr 2033
A 2-goal lead gone for Sibir
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Kuban Holding kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Sibir will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Match2 May 2033
Sibir finish in position 14
42 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Market2 May 2033
“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.
Player ratings2 May 2033
Vladimir Savrasov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.78
A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad2 May 2033
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibir this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings2 May 2033
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Boardroom2 May 2033
Wages eat 225% of everything Sibir 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 dugout2 May 2033
“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
Crisis
Match2 Apr 2033
A hiding for Sibir
Beaten 0‑4 by Druzhba, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Boardroom4 Apr 2033
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Sibir can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad4 Apr 2033
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market4 Apr 2033
“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 Sibir, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Apr 2033
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match2 Apr 2033
No end in sight to Sibir's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sibir has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad4 Apr 2033
Tempers go at Sibir
Dmitry Polukhin 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.
Squad4 Apr 2033
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sibir know it.
Boardroom4 Apr 2033
220% of the income goes out in wages at Sibir
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Mar 2033
28 days out for Danila Ostrovsky after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sibir will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings21 Mar 2033
No sign of nerves from Vladimir Savrasov at 21 — 7.75
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vladimir Savrasov did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings21 Mar 2033
A defender's goal wins it for Sibir — 7.49
1 for Daniil Zuev, marked 7.49, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad21 Mar 2033
Words exchanged at Sibir
Nemanja Andrijanić 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.
Match19 Mar 2033
Vladimir Savrasov scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Nart, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Transfer targets21 Mar 2033
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.
Boardroom21 Mar 2033
Embargo at Sibir
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 dugout21 Mar 2033
“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 dugout21 Mar 2033
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom8 Nov 2032
Sibir go into administration
The club is in the hands of administrators, 9 points have gone off the table, and no signing may be made until further notice. Everything this season was about was decided in a room nobody from the ground was sitting in.
Squad8 Nov 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Daniil Petrunin and Sibir agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Tempers go at Sibir
Alex Walpole 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 Nov 2032
$272.1K of the owner's money at Sibir
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Match6 Nov 2032
Druzhba left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout8 Nov 2032
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 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 Nov 2032
“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.
The dugout8 Nov 2032
Alex Walpole 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 Alex Walpole trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings13 Sep 2032
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.50, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market13 Sep 2032
“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.
Boardroom13 Sep 2032
Window shuts: 13 in, 18 out at Sibir
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 18 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Tempers go at Sibir
Alex Walpole 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.
Match11 Sep 2032
2‑3 to Sevastopol, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2032
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 terraces13 Sep 2032
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout13 Sep 2032
The manager makes an example of Alex Walpole
“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
Steady
Squad30 Aug 2032
The words a physio says slowly. 75 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.
Squad30 Aug 2032
22 days out for Daniil Zuev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sibir will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market30 Aug 2032
“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.
Squad30 Aug 2032
A one-man rearguard from Alex Walpole
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.
Market30 Aug 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sibir is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Aug 2032
A falling-out at Sibir
Alex Walpole and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Moscow have kept their man, and Sibir go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom30 Aug 2032
Sibir 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.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2032
A loan enquiry to KAMAZ: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Aug 2032
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sibir lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Aug 2032
A fracture rules Daniil Zuev out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sibir will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market16 Aug 2032
“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 Sibir, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Words exchanged at Sibir
Accursio Bentivegna 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.
Match14 Aug 2032
Three points for Sibir, 1‑0 the final word against Torpedo Miass in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings16 Aug 2032
A performance of 8.11 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2032
A loan move for Artem Yermakov is in the works
Sibir have made the call to Dinamo Bryansk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout16 Aug 2032
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout16 Aug 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alvis Kamess, and the manager let it.