Marked for Ivan Matyushenko
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Alania's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Alania has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The scrutiny sharpens at Alania
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Alania is running low.
Match5 Dec 2026
5 matches without a goal for Alania
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match5 Dec 2026
0‑1 to Leningradets, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Alania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Makhach Abdulkhamidov 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 Dec 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Saud Al-Ruwaili, and the manager let it.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
$138.2K taken back off the Alania table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Nov 2026
4 matches without a win for Alania
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Alania are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Batraz Gurtsiev 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Alania
Alan Khugaev 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A mark of 7.08, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Vladlen Bogdanov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad9 Nov 2026
One booking too many, and Alan Bagaev sits out. Alania lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
Match7 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Dinamo Kirov will be the happier side with the point.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Artem Zakirov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artem Zakirov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 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 Alania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
Alania counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Alania now.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Timur Chetoev 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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ivan Matyushenko’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Alania needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ivan Matyushenko’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Match12 Oct 2026
Alania in the hunt for Europe
Position 6, 11 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Alania will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Squad12 Oct 2026
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Alania the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Sep 2026
Alania are in real trouble now
Position 8, 7 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Alania
Batraz Gurtsiev 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
2‑3 to Leningradets, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Strogino have kept their man, and Alania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.25 — 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.
The dugout21 Sep 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 2‑3 Vladlen Bogdanov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Alania
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arsen Kanteev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Alania
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Batraz Gurtsiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Alania asked and SKA Khabarovsk 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
“The easiest signature of my career.” Saud Al-Ruwaili and Alania agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market7 Sep 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Murat Yshyk may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market7 Sep 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Alania know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Spartak Gogniev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 Aug 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 Alania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. SKA Khabarovsk have kept their man, and Alania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Alania
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anzor Amiraliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ivan Matyushenko did the work nobody counts — 6.93
11 combined actions and 6.93. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Market17 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Timur Nikolov again, and this time the name on the line is Saturn. Alania are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.