Marked for Kirill Dontsov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Aug 2028
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
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.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
“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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Dontsov 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.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
The Metallurg debt reaches $4.7M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Market28 Aug 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Metallurg will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match26 Aug 2028
It needed Maxim Vedeneev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Arsenal Tula 2, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad28 Aug 2028
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Aug 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Metallurg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 Aug 2028
KDV Tomsk come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Metallurg did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Alexandr Danilov is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Dmitry Savin 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Maxim Vedeneev 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
“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 ratings14 Aug 2028
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
The one thing Thiago Porley could not do
Shots: 7, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Jul 2028
“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.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
A brace, and Thiago Porley takes the afternoon — 8.93
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thiago Porley provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Dmitry Savin 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Vladislav Agalakov has improved at 27, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Vedeneev 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 terraces24 Jul 2028
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match22 Jul 2028
Three points for Metallurg, 2‑0 the final word against Kvant in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Artem Ntumba 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.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
13 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Feb 2028
Kirill Dontsov damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
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.
Boardroom21 Feb 2028
101% 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Feb 2028
Kirill Dontsov damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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 Feb 2028
Thiago Porley 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Feb 2028
Kirill Dontsov damages knee ligaments — 32 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Match7 Feb 2028
Every point is an argument now for Metallurg
Position 13 and 26 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Feb 2028
“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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The Metallurg board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad7 Feb 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Jan 2028
Kirill Dontsov damages knee ligaments — 39 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
Match29 Jan 2028
8 matches without a win for Metallurg
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Metallurg are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Metallurg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad31 Jan 2028
30 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match29 Jan 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Rotor 2 leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market31 Jan 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Metallurg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Jan 2028
Kirill Dontsov damages knee ligaments — 46 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
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.
Match22 Jan 2028
The wait goes on for Metallurg
7 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Alexandr Danilov: 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.” Metallurg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Dmitry Savin 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.
Match22 Jan 2028
Metallurg leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match22 Jan 2028
Orel left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Artem Ntumba was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
99% 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Dec 2027
Every point is an argument now for Metallurg
Position 14 and 20 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match4 Dec 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Dinamo Bryansk, and it could have been more.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market6 Dec 2027
“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.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Thiago Porley, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.22
A mark of 8.22 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Dmitry Savin 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Vedeneev 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 ratings6 Dec 2027
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match4 Dec 2027
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Dinamo Bryansk tried to reorganise, Metallurg did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Oct 2027
Peter Thomas: 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.” Metallurg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Dmitry Savin 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom18 Oct 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Maxim Vedeneev 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Daniil Grigorjev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Metallurg.
Squad18 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Kirill Dontsov
“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 ratings18 Oct 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.84 on the card, and the Metallurg support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market18 Oct 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Metallurg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Sep 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Artem Sokolov is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Dmitry Savin 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Maxim Vedeneev 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 terraces6 Sep 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Maxim Vedeneev 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.
Match4 Sep 2027
Three points for Metallurg, 1‑0 the final word against Rodina M in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.37, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Marked 8.04 — 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Wages eat 107% 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Jul 2027
Thiago Porley 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.
The terraces26 Jul 2027
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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Maxim Vedeneev 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.
Match24 Jul 2027
Artem Ntumba scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Kvant, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Georgy Rykov 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 Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Ninety minutes of Artem Ntumba at his very best
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Metallurg.
Squad26 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Kirill Dontsov
“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.
Boardroom26 Jul 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Nikita Panov dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Artem Sokolov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kirill Dontsov and Metallurg agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Vedeneev 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
Market3 May 2027
Thiago Porley 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
Alexey Skvortsov 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.
Squad3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kirill Dontsov, and the manager let it.