Marked for Dmitry Rybchinskiy
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Feb 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Nart waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Orenburg is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
Tenton Yenne: 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.” Orenburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market7 Feb 2028
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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
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.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Fakel wanted more than $100.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A move Samuel Bednár 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. Samuel Bednár is living that version at Orenburg, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match5 Feb 2028
Krasnodar left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Orenburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emircan Gürlük 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 dugout7 Feb 2028
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout3 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Dmitry Vasiljev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Orenburg is pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Jan 2028
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.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Akhmat Grozny will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ousmane Ndong has pre-agreed a move to Orenburg, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Match1 Jan 2028
3 matches without a goal for Orenburg
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.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Vasiljev, and the manager let it.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Match1 Jan 2028
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Fakel defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Sep 2027
Nowhere to hide for Orenburg
1‑4 against Dinamo Moscow, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market20 Sep 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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Matvey Lukin pops up at the right end — 7.68
7.68, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad20 Sep 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 targets20 Sep 2027
Orenburg asked and Krasnodar 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 dugout20 Sep 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Boardroom20 Sep 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Market20 Sep 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Orenburg, another week without a signature from Alexandre Jesus.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Sep 2027
Orenburg say no — this time
The offer from Lokomotiv for Astemir Khashkulov 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.
Market6 Sep 2027
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Batraz Gurtsiev is a Orenburg player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad6 Sep 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Orenburg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tilman Palacios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout6 Sep 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.
Market6 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
12 new faces, and Orenburg are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Tenton Yenne slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Tenton Yenne is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jersson González trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 May 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words exchanged at Orenburg
Bogdan Ovsyannikov 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.
Squad31 May 2027
34 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Alexandre Jesus
“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.
Squad31 May 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 dugout31 May 2027
Du Queiróz 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.
Loan watch31 May 2027
11 appearances away from home and 7 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout31 May 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad31 May 2027
The training reports on Jordhy Thompson are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Orenburg
Stanislav Poroikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Rybchinskiy, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Jhon Palacios 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
When it matters, Duvier Díaz plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout26 Apr 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Maxim Rudakov: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match6 Jan 2027
The small margins put Orenburg out
Out, 0‑0 to Krasnodar, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market11 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
UTA Arad come back empty-handed
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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Dmitry Vasiljev delivers — 7.57
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dmitry Vasiljev scored, was marked 7.57, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Bogdan Ovsyannikov 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
A bad afternoon for Orenburg against Rubin
1‑2 to Rubin, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout11 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Orenburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irakli Kvekveskiri 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Gedeon Guzina, 33, rolls back the years — 7.86
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad4 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Three points for Orenburg, 1‑0 the final word against Baltika in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Orenburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irakli Kvekveskiri 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 dugout4 Jan 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 dugout4 Jan 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Orenburg told Alexandre Jesus something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
The dugout4 Jan 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Nov 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market30 Nov 2026
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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Orenburg cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jersson González, and the manager let it.
Match28 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Alexandre Jesus’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. Dmitry Vasiljev 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 7, 21 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
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Du Queiróz 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.
Squad2 Nov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Orenburg
Vladimir Ignatenko 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Maxime Sivis is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Maxime Sivis has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Miroslav Zabelin was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Orenburg dressing room was either.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
11 appearances at Dinamo Vladivostok and the goals keep coming. Orenburg are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The plan did not have a place for Jhon Palacios
Nobody at Orenburg 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Orenburg
Bogdan Ovsyannikov 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.
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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Robert Mejía
“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
A goal on 90 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.63 on the card, and the Orenburg support went home talking about one name.
Match24 Oct 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Miroslav Zabelin was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Orenburg dressing room was either.
The dugout26 Oct 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 ahead26 Oct 2026
The leaders are next for Orenburg
Zenit 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
Match17 Oct 2026
0‑3 to Akhmat, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Maxime Sivis
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Orenburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Vasiljev 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.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Orenburg dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Duvier Díaz commits to Orenburg for another 2 years.
The dugout19 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Artem Kasimov’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
Steady
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Rostov; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Orenburg close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Orenburg have done the hard part with Amkar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Dmitry Vasiljev 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Vladimir Ignatenko 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Orenburg are still strangers to each other
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad14 Sep 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Orenburg are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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.” Miroslav Zabelin chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.