Marked for Evgeny Ushakov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Nov 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Orel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Dmitry Kopylov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Orel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“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; Orel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A mark of 7.46, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Orel
Yuval Titelman 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
549% 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Kvant made Orel work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.62 on the card, and the Orel support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Dmitry Kopylov
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Walisson Nem knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Orel, another week without a signature from Şerban Tomache.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Oct 2026
“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.
Match10 Oct 2026
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.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 24 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“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 Orel know it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Igor Bugaenko scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Metallurg, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Şerban Tomache
“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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Evgeny Ushakov 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 Evgeny Ushakov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Sep 2026
The cup run ends for Orel
0‑1 against Yenisey, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market5 Oct 2026
“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.
Match3 Oct 2026
5 matches without a win for Orel
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Orel are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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 Orel know it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 955% of everything Orel 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Evgeny Ushakov
“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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Valentin Dimitrov and Orel agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A defender's afternoon for Danila Sokol
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pavel Izotov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match19 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Spartak Tambov defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 5.39, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A new face in his position, and Vadim Averkiev suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Orel have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Orel
Yuval Titelman 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
6 unbeaten for Orel
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Orel did not have in the autumn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
733% 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Three points for Orel, 1‑0 the final word against Strogino in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrey Yakushin, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Danila Sokol named player of the month
The award goes to Danila Sokol, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 7.85 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Orel had the best player on the pitch.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Aug 2026
Vadim Averkiev decides it from twelve yards
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup progress for Orel
A 0‑0 win over Leningradets, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Orel
Yuval Titelman 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Igor Bugaenko. 1‑0 against Arsenal Tula 2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Maksymilian Czerwiński and Orel agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Nikita Korolev
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Berk Kızıldemir and Orel agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match15 Aug 2026
Dinamo Bryansk made Orel work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Roman Kopylov
“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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
Berk Kızıldemir is 19, and Orel have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yuval Titelman and Orel agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match8 Aug 2026
Three points for Orel, 1‑0 the final word against SKA Khabarovsk 2 in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“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 ratings10 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Market10 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Orel will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces3 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 4 of the 16 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vadim Averkiev commits to Orel for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Orel have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Arkhip Leonov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Orel.