Marked for Dmitry Rybchinskiy
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 May 2027
Irakli Kvekveskiri damages knee ligaments — 84 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 84 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Orenburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordhy Thompson 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.
The dugout17 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexey Tataev, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 May 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orenburg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout17 May 2027
Alexey Tataev gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alexey Tataev is on it.
Market17 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dmitry Vasiljev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad17 May 2027
A wage question at Orenburg
Emircan Gürlük has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Market17 May 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Dmitry Rybchinskiy may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout17 May 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Orenburg. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2027
115 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orenburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Jordhy Thompson 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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Emircan Gürlük
“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.
Market19 Apr 2027
“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 dugout19 Apr 2027
Alexey Tataev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Orenburg will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orenburg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market19 Apr 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Gedeon Guzina’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A wage question at Orenburg
Emircan Gürlük has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Market19 Apr 2027
Orenburg have let the market know Dmitry Rybchinskiy can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Orenburg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordhy Thompson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Maxim Saveljev 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 Orenburg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market22 Mar 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Gedeon Guzina’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Renat Golybin gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Renat Golybin is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Orenburg's wait for a win
13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Orenburg has to find a result from somewhere.
Market1 Mar 2027
“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 Orenburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Mar 2027
The deal that would have taken Emil Tsenov to Dinamo Moscow has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Orenburg with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
Everything agreed with Volga, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
Orenburg asked and CSKA 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.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Window shuts: 3 in, 2 out at Orenburg
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Orenburg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Orenburg
Jordhy Thompson 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Orenburg did not have in the autumn.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Orenburg's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Orenburg has to find a result from somewhere.
Market22 Feb 2027
“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.
Market22 Feb 2027
The bid was some way short and Orenburg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market22 Feb 2027
The paperwork is done: Chingiz Magomadov joins from Mashuk in a deal worth $2.2M. Now comes the harder part.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Market22 Feb 2027
The chase for Saminu Abdullahi ended with $490.0K changing hands and KAMAZ out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A move Saminu Abdullahi would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Saminu Abdullahi is living that version at Orenburg, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Orenburg
Bogdan Ovsyannikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Orenburg
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market15 Feb 2027
“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.
Market15 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market15 Feb 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Orenburg can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad15 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orenburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
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 dugout15 Feb 2027
“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 dugout15 Feb 2027
Jordhy Thompson asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Yefim Terekhov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Orenburg
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad25 Jan 2027
19 days out for Timofey Korolev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Orenburg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Orenburg sell a favourite for $2.6M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Alexandre Jesus was one of the reasons people came, and $2.6M does not replace that by itself.
Market25 Jan 2027
Alexandre Jesus has left for Santos in a $2.6M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Match23 Jan 2027
The goals have deserted Orenburg
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Orenburg can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad25 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orenburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
200 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.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Jan 2027
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orenburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market18 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orenburg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match16 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Orenburg's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Orenburg has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Jan 2027
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Match16 Jan 2027
The goals have deserted Orenburg
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Orenburg can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Timofey Martynov 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
0‑2 to Lokomotiv Moscow, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Jan 2027
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orenburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match2 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Orenburg
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Orenburg
Jordhy Thompson 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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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 dugout4 Jan 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Yefim Terekhov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Timofey Martynov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
Irakli Kvekveskiri damages knee ligaments — 69 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 69 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Robert Mejía goes up and wins it — 7.95
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 7.95 for the rest of it.
Squad30 Nov 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 Orenburg know it.
Match28 Nov 2026
The drought breaks for Orenburg
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Krylya Sovetov were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandre Jesus, and the manager let it.
Match28 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Robert Mejía’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Orenburg.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Orenburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordhy Thompson 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.
Match30 Nov 2026
Orenburg at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 9, 17 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Orenburg
Evgeny Bolotov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Orenburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Orenburg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match31 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Orenburg
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Orenburg can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandre Jesus, and the manager let it.
Match31 Oct 2026
Zenit left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Looking ahead2 Nov 2026
Rostov next, and one man in the Orenburg dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Orenburg will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Irakli Kvekveskiri damages knee ligaments — 105 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 105 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Jordhy Thompson 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Yefim Terekhov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Marius Adamonis
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Du Queiróz’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Orenburg needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Irakli Kvekveskiri damages knee ligaments — 145 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 145 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Orenburg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
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 Orenburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
Lokomotiv Moscow left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jordhy Thompson, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Yefim Terekhov to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Marius Adamonis dropped after a run of poor form
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.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Dinamo Moscow in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.