Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladlen Babaev 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.
“I watch every Tyumen game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at CSKA Moscow runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tyumen lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Tyumen will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tyumen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ansor Khabibov 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tyumen can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Damir Talikin, marked 7.74, 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.
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.
“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; Tyumen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tyumen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Ansor Khabibov.
1 for Tomas Rukas, marked 7.83, 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.
Vitaly Shitov 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladlen Babaev 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Tyumen, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vitaly Shitov signs something — a contract at Tyumen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tyumen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladlen Babaev 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ansor Khabibov. 1‑0 against Veles, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Tomas Rukas
27 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Tyumen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Shitov 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.
A 1‑0 win over Dinamo Moscow 2, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Dmitry Begun 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“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 Tyumen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Damir Talikin delivers — 7.73
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Damir Talikin scored, was marked 7.73, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Vitaly Shitov 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.
Maxim Yedapin 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.
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.
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.
Add another name to the list: Saturn have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kirill Boyarskikh. The answer from Tyumen has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Vitaly Shitov 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.