34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Arsenal Tula lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The bid was some way short and Arsenal Tula did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Arsenal Tula close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 4 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.
“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 Arsenal Tula know it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Alan Tsaraev 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 words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Kevin Arévalo from Akron for $610.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
1‑3 to Sokol, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Tsaraev 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.
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.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arsenal Tula lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ilzat Akhmetov provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
$610.0K settles it between the clubs for Kevin Arévalo
Akron have accepted the money. What Arsenal Tula do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Up for the corner, and Alan Tsaraev delivers — 7.55
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alan Tsaraev scored, was marked 7.55, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Arsenal Tula asked and Navbahor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Arsenal Tula, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Kirill Bolshakov has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Alan Tsaraev 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.
Emir Faccioli 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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. Arsenal Tula will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
1 for Miloš Brnović, marked 7.73, 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arsenal Tula can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Arsenal Tula now know that too.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Ural next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mauro Ruggiero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Volga left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Arsenal Tula 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
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 0‑1 Arseny Ermakov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Arsenal Tula did not have in the autumn.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Alan Tsaraev 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.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Miloš Brnović’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Arsenal Tula.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Miloš Brnović was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. 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.
Position 4, 32 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Arseny Ermakov on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Gonzalo Burgoa obliged against Shinnik. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Arsenal Tula.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.61 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Miloš Brnović, 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Three points for Arsenal Tula, 3‑1 the final word against Chaika in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Alan Tsaraev 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.
They paid twice — for the ticket and for the journey — and got a 3-1 win for it. Away support is the truest kind precisely because nothing about it is convenient.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Oleg Isaenko
Squad6 new faces, and Arsenal Tula are still learning each other
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emir Faccioli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Arsenal Tula are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Arseny Ermakov could afford to be generous.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arsenal Tula, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arsenal Tula will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arsenal Tula have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Arsenal Tula and Fakel, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matías Ballini and Arsenal Tula agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Tsaraev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Daniil Penchikov 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
235% of the income goes out in wages at Arsenal Tula
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Match31 Oct 2026
After 4 games, Arsenal Tula finally taste it again
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Fakel; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arsenal Tula will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Paulo Renê takes the afternoon — 9.12
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Paulo Renê provided it, and the 9.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Everybody at Arsenal Tula saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emir Faccioli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Arsenal Tula will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Emir Faccioli 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Arsenal Tula is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Alan Tsaraev 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emir Faccioli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Oleg Isaenko is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Arsenal Tula will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Tula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Emir Faccioli 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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Artem Arutyunov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Mattéo Ahlinvi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Tsaraev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Arsenal Tula go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Spartak Kostroma scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Chelyabinsk will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Arsenal Tula were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Mattéo Ahlinvi 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Alan Tsaraev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Andijon have kept their man, and Arsenal Tula go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.25, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Alan Tsaraev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
11 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arsenal Tula will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Alan Tsaraev had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Arsenal Tula offered $900.0K; Chelyabinsk said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Arsenal Tula will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Tula can pretend not to have heard.
The phone has started ringing about Alan Tsaraev again, and this time the name on the line is Ordabasy. Arsenal Tula are listening politely and promising nothing.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jovan Mitrović has just signed for Arsenal Tula, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Arsenal Tula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Tsaraev 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.
Arsenal Tula asked and Primorje said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Arsenal Tula will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Arsenal Tula, another week without a signature from Casper Staring.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Arsenal Tula will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Atyrau for Artem Arutyunov 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.
“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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Alan Tsaraev delivers — 7.67
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alan Tsaraev scored, was marked 7.67, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Arsenal Tula had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Pyunik, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sokol have kept their man, and Arsenal Tula go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Metallurg have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Daniil Plotnikov. The answer from Arsenal Tula has not changed — yet.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. Rodina had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Arsenal Tula offered $1.5M; Baltika said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Nyíregyháza keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Roman Izotov 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Miloš Brnović. 2‑1 against Torpedo Moscow, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.