Marked for David Kokoev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Dec 2027
The wait goes on for Yenisey
9 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
The goals have deserted Yenisey
9 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Yenisey can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A fracture rules Konstantin Vasin out for 32 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Yenisey will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Yenisey
Yegor Shamov 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Yegor Ivanov 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 dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Andrey Mazurin
“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.
Match18 Dec 2027
Nizhniy Novgorod left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Looking ahead20 Dec 2027
Everything rides on Tyumen
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Yenisey know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
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 Vadim Semak to a room that had heard them before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
Yegor Shamov 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Yenisey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladis Emmersón 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 dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Pogosov, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Yegor Shamov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Yenisey 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 dugout12 Apr 2027
David Kokoev 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
René Mitongo, 19, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Yenisey would like this to lead.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Vladislav Kravtsov 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Nikita Bogatyrev 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 dugout29 Mar 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrea Chukanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout29 Mar 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 dugout29 Mar 2027
When it matters, Azər Əliyev 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.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alexandr Lomakin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Yenisey needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market29 Mar 2027
The David Kokoev story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until David Kokoev signs something — a contract at Yenisey or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Rodion Pechura has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Mar 2027
So close: David Kokoev’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Dinamo Moscow moved on, David Kokoev reports back to Yenisey, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yegor Ivanov and Yenisey agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Yenisey
Yegor Shamov 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.
Match6 Mar 2027
Yenisey cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrey Mazurin, and the manager let it.
Match6 Mar 2027
SKA Khabarovsk left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Mar 2027
René Mitongo is the division's best young player this month
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Yenisey will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Market8 Mar 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Yenisey, another week without a signature from Yegor Shamov.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Mar 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Yenisey have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match24 Feb 2027
The cup run ends for Yenisey
0‑0 against Zenit, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
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 Yenisey, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Mar 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad1 Mar 2027
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Marked 7.73 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Yenisey 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Yenisey
Yegor Shamov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market1 Mar 2027
Stanislav Antipin has left for Ural in a $170.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 Feb 2027
The bid was some way short and Yenisey did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
A brace, and René Mitongo takes the afternoon — 8.40
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. René Mitongo provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market22 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ural waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Yenisey is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Artem Pogosov: 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.” Yenisey have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The terraces22 Feb 2027
Supporters turn on the $800.0K sale of Andrey Okladnikov
He is going to Baltika, the club has $800.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market22 Feb 2027
Baltika pay $800.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Yegor Shamov 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 Yenisey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Yenisey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladis Emmersón 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
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Yenisey
Yegor Shamov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rodion Pechura, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Evgeny Gololobov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Yenisey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Bogatyrev 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Marked 7.33 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Yenisey had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout4 Jan 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.” Vadim Semak chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
David Kokoev 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 dugout4 Jan 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Match2 Jan 2027
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Spartak Kostroma came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
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 7.89 for the rest of it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Yenisey
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladis Emmersón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 Dec 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 Yenisey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Dec 2026
Three points for Yenisey, 2‑0 the final word against KAMAZ in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrey Okladnikov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Andrey Mazurin at his very best
Marked 8.41. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Yenisey.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Vadim Semak: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Nobody at Yenisey 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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 Manuel Severich is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match18 Nov 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Manuel Severich obliged against Baltika. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Yenisey.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.92, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The match ball belongs to Manuel Severich, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad23 Nov 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 Yenisey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A performance of 9.35 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match21 Nov 2026
Shinnik made Yenisey work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.14 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
David Kokoev 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Sep 2026
Yenisey march on in the cup
Dinamo Bryansk are out and Yenisey go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match30 Sep 2026
Ivan Oborocha wins it after the whistle should have gone
96 minutes played. Ivan Oborocha found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Dinamo Bryansk went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Yegor Shamov 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 Yenisey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Alexandr Kanaplin for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Yenisey will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Time is catching up with Luis Vargas
Everybody at Yenisey saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 38 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Yenisey
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladis Emmersón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 318% of everything Yenisey 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 terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Marat Tlekhugov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The deal with Gimnasia y Esgrima is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Yenisey
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladis Emmersón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
David Kokoev slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. David Kokoev is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Artur Gilyazetdinov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Artur Gilyazetdinov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Yenisey have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Yenisey
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladis Emmersón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Egaleo have kept their man, and Yenisey go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Yenisey
Alexandr Kanaplin 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Spartak Kostroma, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Alexandr Lomakin did the work nobody counts — 6.55
10 combined actions and 6.55. 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Andrea Chukanov
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 dugout17 Aug 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.