Marked for Daniil Chernyakov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match18 Sep 2027
No end in sight to Metallurg's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Metallurg has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad20 Sep 2027
The medical room confirms 132 days on the sidelines for Denis Semin, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market20 Sep 2027
Tikhon Demidov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metallurg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
43 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market20 Sep 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Metallurg have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match18 Sep 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad20 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniil Chernyakov commits to Metallurg for another 3 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Daniil Chernyakov 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yegor Ananjev, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Daniil Grigorjev keeps the shirt for now, at Metallurg's convenience rather than his own.
Market5 Jul 2027
The Denis Semin story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Denis Semin signs something — a contract at Metallurg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market5 Jul 2027
Still no offer on the table, and Mikhail Zykov’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 May 2027
Boris Bely hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metallurg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 May 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Danilov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
Maxim Vedeneev 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.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Wages eat 224% of everything Metallurg 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.
Squad22 Feb 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 Metallurg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Feb 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
He is 21, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match30 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexey Skvortsov. 1‑0 against Rotor 2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Marked 8.39 — 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.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Metallurg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The numbers do not look good at Metallurg
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad1 Feb 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Metallurg have had the benefit of it.
Market4 Jan 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 Metallurg, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Marked 8.00 — 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniil Chernyakov, and the manager let it.
Match2 Jan 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Znamya Truda leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces7 Dec 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 25 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market7 Dec 2026
Boris Bely hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metallurg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniil Chernyakov and Metallurg agree another 3 years.
Squad7 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Dec 2026
Dinamo Bryansk left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Kobzev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Nov 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 Metallurg can pretend not to have heard.
Market30 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metallurg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match28 Nov 2026
Still nobody has beaten Metallurg
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad30 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Metallurg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
561% of the income goes out in wages at Metallurg
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.
Squad30 Nov 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.81 on the card, and the Metallurg support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Alexandr Kobzev 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Metallurg did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 9.22 — 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
A 2‑1 win over Salyut, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 8.09 — 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniil Chernyakov, and the manager let it.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Metallurg, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Getting past Alexandr Kobzev has become the hardest job in the division
4 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Nov 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.
Market2 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metallurg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad2 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match31 Oct 2026
Ryazan made Metallurg work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nikita Kononenko and Metallurg agree another 4 years.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
561% of the income goes out in wages at Metallurg
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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.93, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.89 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Alexandr Kobzev
“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
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Maxim Vedeneev 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Oct 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.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Irkutsk to sit and watch. I want to come back to Metallurg and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Match17 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
5.75 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Market19 Oct 2026
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Metallurg could get for him.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladislav Agalakov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Oct 2026
Boris Bely hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metallurg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Ilnur Badrtdinov 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 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Metallurg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match10 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Orel, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.13, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 13. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Sep 2026
The cup run ends for Metallurg
0‑1 against Ufa, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market5 Oct 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metallurg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 25. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Maxim Vedeneev 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Metallurg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 895% of everything Metallurg 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.80, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dmitry Savin. 1‑0 against Dinamo St Petersburg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces14 Sep 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 25 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad14 Sep 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Strogino left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market14 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market14 Sep 2026
The clock runs on Nicolás Ibarra's contract
11 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Market14 Sep 2026
The name of Maxim Vedeneev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Metallurg say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metallurg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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
Maxim Vedeneev 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
A 3‑1 win over Rodina M, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market7 Sep 2026
Business is business: Nikita Panov goes
Kuban paid $17.0K and Metallurg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.98 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.97, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
838% of the income goes out in wages at Metallurg
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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Alexandr Kobzev
“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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with SKA Khabarovsk 2 leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Every debut is a small story about the future: Yegor Ananjev, 20 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
Metallurg say no — this time
The offer from Textilschik for Artem Ntumba 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metallurg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad10 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Enzo Borgarelli and Metallurg agree another 3 years.
Match8 Aug 2026
Three points for Metallurg, 2‑1 the final word against Zenit Penza in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.84 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.61 — 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.42 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad10 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market3 Aug 2026
Nikita Panov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metallurg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alexey Skvortsov commits to Metallurg for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Maxim Vedeneev 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Ryazan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alexandr Burykin. The answer from Metallurg has not changed — yet.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad3 Aug 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Daniil Grigorjev’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.