Marked for Artem Golubev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Jan 2028
Erik Oblak breaks a bone — 26 days out
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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Aluminij
Florjan Jevšenak 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Aluminij
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Maurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Primorje have kept their man, and Aluminij go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Jan 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Aluminij have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Artem Golubev and Aluminij agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Dailon Ramadani
“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.
Loan watch10 Jan 2028
“I am playing every week here and I feel like a footballer again.” 21 appearances and 5 goals on loan, and a decision waiting in the summer.
Loan watch10 Jan 2028
21 appearances at Jadran Dekani and the goals keep coming. Aluminij are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Aug 2027
15 days out for Denis Vambolt after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Shinnik will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market9 Aug 2027
Aktobe come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Shinnik did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market9 Aug 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 The request is on a desk at Shinnik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shinnik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Lanús is saying, and nobody at Shinnik is enjoying the guessing.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Shinnik
Yaroslav Mikhailov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Shinnik asked and Dinamo Minsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match7 Aug 2027
Three points for Shinnik, 1‑0 the final word against Fakel in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Jul 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 Shinnik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Denis Vambolt breaks a bone — 37 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Shinnik may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.08 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Nizhniy Novgorod is saying, and nobody at Shinnik is enjoying the guessing.
Market19 Jul 2027
The name of Daniil Kornyushin has come up in conversations Shinnik were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Shinnik have done the hard part with Akhmat Grozny, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Shinnik
Danila Yanov 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
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Stanislav Yarygin has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad7 Jun 2027
82 days out for Denis Vambolt after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Shinnik will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market7 Jun 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 Shinnik, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
This is not rotation. Timofey Mitrov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Shinnik is pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Jun 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 Shinnik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Shinnik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vojtěch Patka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market7 Jun 2027
31 games and 1 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Vadim Karpov 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 dugout7 Jun 2027
Artem Golubev loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Artem Golubev's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom24 May 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Shinnik
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad24 May 2027
99 days out for Denis Vambolt after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Shinnik will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market24 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.
Squad24 May 2027
A row about effort at Shinnik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denis Mironov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Golubev, and the manager let it.
Squad24 May 2027
A falling-out at Shinnik
Ivan Kukushkin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 May 2027
Kirill Malyarov 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 dugout24 May 2027
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 Kirill Nikitin is on it.
Squad24 May 2027
Artem Golubev has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Shinnik will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Mar 2027
Shinnik sink to position 16
33 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match20 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Shinnik's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shinnik has to find a result from somewhere.
Match20 Mar 2027
Yenisey left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Denis Mironov 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
Wages eat 149% of everything Shinnik earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Shavlokhov, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Shinnik pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Stanislav Yarygin left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Kirill Malyarov
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shinnik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Oct 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 Shinnik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 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 Shinnik know it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Kirill Bozhenov 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 ratings19 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Stefan Denić
“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.
Match17 Oct 2026
It needed Denis Mironov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against KAMAZ, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market19 Oct 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Nikita Kotin has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Shinnik.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Kirill Malyarov damages knee ligaments — 126 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 126 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Shinnik
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Shinnik are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Shinnik asked and Slavia Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Shinnik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Mironov 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
1‑2 to Chernomorets, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Timofey Mitrov
“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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.95. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Stanislav Yarygin after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting David Shavlokhov's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
Kirill Malyarov damages knee ligaments — 134 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 134 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shinnik can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Shinnik until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Shinnik
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Shinnik are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rubin have kept their man, and Shinnik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Shinnik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denis Mironov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vyacheslav Dudko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ivan Shmakov in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shinnik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Kirill Malyarov damages knee ligaments — 141 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 141 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Shinnik asked and Miedź Legnica 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
Words exchanged at Shinnik
Lucas Macedo 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
No place for Stefan Denić in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Shinnik are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A loan enquiry to Slavia Prague: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Envigado have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Shinnik have made Timofey Mitrov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.