Marked for Evgeny Ushakov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Dec 2026
0‑2 to Dinamo Bryansk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Dec 2026
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout21 Dec 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pyotr Dudko after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Looking ahead21 Dec 2026
Arsenal Tula 2 next, and one man in the Orel dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market21 Dec 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Evgeny Ushakov signs something — a contract at Orel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“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 Orel will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Dec 2026
5‑1, and Maxim Kolmakov took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Orel tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Karel Rožánek takes the afternoon — 8.25
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Karel Rožánek provided it, and the 8.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Marked 7.73 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 ratings14 Dec 2026
Evgeny Ushakov, 33, rolls back the years — 8.01
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Orel
Maxim Kolmakov 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Orel and SKA Khabarovsk 2 in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
He is 21 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Vadim Averkiev
“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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Orel training over how hard people work
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Market
No place for Arkhip Leonov in the plan
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Evgeny Ushakov, 33, rolls back the years — 7.96
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Timofey Kashitsyn is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Orel
Vadim Averkiev 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Three points for Orel, 2‑1 the final word against Rotor 2 in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Dmitry Merkulov at his very best
Marked 8.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Orel.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Dmitry Kopylov 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Pyotr Dudko could afford to be generous.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
The leaders are next for Orel
Metallurg top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
Orel say no — this time
The offer from Kyzyltash for Stepan Pyatin was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vadim Averkiev commits to Orel for another 4 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Zenit Penza, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout3 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.
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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pyotr Dudko after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Sergey Zuikov is in the works
Orel have made the call to Tyumen. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Dinamo St Petersburg: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Maksim Ogarev is in the works
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Squad
5 new faces, and Orel are still learning each other
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The dugout
The plan did not have a place for Dmitry Kopylov