Marked for Dmitry Bakay
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
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 Dinamo Barnaul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Dmitry Bakay’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Dinamo Barnaul.
Market21 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Aleksandr Dubrovin has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Ivan Zhitnikov at his very best
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Barnaul.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Dmitry Bakay was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑1, already talking about the next one.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The plan did not have a place for Emil Kamilov
Nobody at Dinamo Barnaul is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Dinamo Barnaul asked and Rodina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Zhitnikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Maxim Radchenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Anton Petukhov named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Anton Petukhov is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Nikita Chaly 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 Dinamo Barnaul, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The deal with Torpedo Moscow is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Torpedo Moscow is saying, and nobody at Dinamo Barnaul is enjoying the guessing.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ivan Zhitnikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 Aug 2026
3 matches without a goal for Dinamo Barnaul
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
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 dugout31 Aug 2026
Emil Kamilov gets it from the manager
“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 dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Yefrem Semyonov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Dinamo Barnaul dressing room was either.
Match29 Aug 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Krylya Sovetov 2 defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Aug 2026
Akron 2 will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Dinamo Barnaul were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.68 for the rest of it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ivan Zhitnikov 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Dinamo Barnaul asked and Rodina 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
He is 23 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Bakay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Aug 2026
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Rodina: 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
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ivan Zhitnikov and Dinamo Barnaul agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mikhail Osipov 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Dinamo Barnaul have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Dinamo Barnaul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Zhitnikov 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.
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
49 months and counting on Vasily Ilik
Still no offer on the table, and Vasily Ilik’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Match1 Aug 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Amkar defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.