Marked for Valentin Davydov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Aug 2036
Orel march on in the cup
Sibir are out and Orel go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match23 Aug 2036
Whatever happens, Orel do not lose
10 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings25 Aug 2036
Marked 7.98 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market25 Aug 2036
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stanimir Vasilev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Orel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2036
No thanks: Yakov Pronin rejects the move
Orel had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Astrakhan, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Player ratings25 Aug 2036
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad25 Aug 2036
Tempers go at Orel
Alexandr Bem 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 Aug 2036
A row about effort at Orel
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniil Arsentjev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces25 Aug 2036
He is 20 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.
In brief
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Match
The run at home goes on for Orel
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Boardroom
Wages eat 126% of everything Orel earn
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Player ratings
Carlos Valdes in the eights
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Aug 2036
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Orel people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match16 Aug 2036
8 unbeaten for Orel
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Orel did not have in the autumn.
Squad18 Aug 2036
Words exchanged at Orel
Alexandre Fernandes 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.
Squad18 Aug 2036
Alexandr Bem 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.
Match16 Aug 2036
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout18 Aug 2036
“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.
Player ratings18 Aug 2036
Shots: 18, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
The dugout18 Aug 2036
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Player ratings18 Aug 2036
Chances created: 10. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Jul 2036
“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.
Squad14 Jul 2036
A falling-out at Orel
Alexandr Bem and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2036
Orel asked and Lokomotiv Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Jul 2036
Maxim Karaev is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad14 Jul 2036
Daniil Arsentjev 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.
Boardroom14 Jul 2036
No signings allowed at Orel
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
The dugout14 Jul 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandre Fernandes, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Jul 2036
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Valentin Davydov and Orel agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2036
A loan move for Marcus Jansson is in the works
Orel have made the call to Shakhter Donetsk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Mar 2036
A muscle injury sidelines Daniil Arsentjev for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Orel will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Tempers go at Orel
Daniil Arsentjev 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.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Words at Orel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Bem 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.
Boardroom10 Mar 2036
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Artem Gavrilenko has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Orel have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets10 Mar 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Amkar have kept their man, and Orel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Fabinho is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Boardroom10 Mar 2036
Wages swallow 120% of the Orel income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Market10 Mar 2036
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout10 Mar 2036
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.