From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Avangard
Position 7 and 7 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.
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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Soslan Dzarasov 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Avangard, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout23 Nov 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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
Uneasy
Market16 Nov 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Avangard
Alexey Sukharev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Denis Traigel
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Avangard will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout16 Nov 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 Bohdan Shmyhelskyi is on it.
Market16 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Avangard know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Avangard
Alexey Sukharev 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Knyazev 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 dugout9 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Avangard know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Pressure builds in the Avangard boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market2 Nov 2026
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Knyazev 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 177% of everything Avangard 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager's exit leaves Valerii Yurchuk exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Valerii Yurchuk is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugout2 Nov 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Avangard, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
$203.1K taken back off the Avangard 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Oct 2026
Every point is an argument now for Avangard
Position 7 and 7 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.
Market26 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Avangard are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Daniil Sedov 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Avangard, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout26 Oct 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 Soslan Dzarasov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Oct 2026
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Daniil Sedov: 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.” Avangard have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Danila Knyazev 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Bohdan Shmyhelskyi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Avangard.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
He is 23 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A mark of 7.95, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The team sheet said everything about Denis Traigel
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Denis Traigel.
Market19 Oct 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ruslan Aderikhin has his answer from Avangard; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Oct 2026
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match10 Oct 2026
4 matches without a win for Avangard
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Avangard are no longer polite ones.
Match10 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Avangard
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Avangard can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Danila Knyazev 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tikhon Burov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Match10 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Kumsarov, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The team sheet said everything about Alexandr Khrebtov
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Alexandr Khrebtov.
The dugout12 Oct 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 Viktor Pugachev left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match30 Sep 2026
The small margins put Avangard out
Out, 0‑3 to CSKA Moscow, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Avangard
A 0‑3 beating by Murom was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market5 Oct 2026
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
A cup hiding at CSKA Moscow leaves Avangard explaining themselves
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Alexey Sukharev 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
10 appearances at an average of 6.27, and the senior players have stopped making excuses for him. It happens to good footballers; it still costs somebody their job.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 229% of the Avangard income
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
Chastening afternoon for Avangard
A 1‑8 beating by Kuban was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match28 Sep 2026
Avangard sink to position 7
4 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad28 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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Avangard and Kuban, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Avangard training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Knyazev 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexey Sukharev, and the manager let it.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Avangard
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Sep 2026
“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 Avangard, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Avangard
Alexey Sukharev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Soslan Dzarasov 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Three points for Avangard, 1‑0 the final word against Irtysh in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.88 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Avangard had the best player on the pitch.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Soslan Dzarasov 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Viktor Pugachev on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Avangard take on the side everybody is chasing
Kuban arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
7.24, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Avangard close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 0 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Avangard
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Avangard are no longer polite ones.
Match12 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for Avangard against Kaluga
2‑4 to Kaluga, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Sep 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.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
A six-pointer for Avangard
Irtysh next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
Match14 Sep 2026
Avangard at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 8, 1 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Viktor Pugachev to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 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 Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings7 Sep 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 7.70 for the rest of it.
Match5 Sep 2026
1‑3 to Rodina 2, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Avangard
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Knyazev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Rustam Berzegov
“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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Alexey Sukharev 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Avangard than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Aug 2026
Avangard sink to position 8
1 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market31 Aug 2026
Denis Konshin 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 Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Avangard
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Knyazev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Dinamo Vladivostok, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Avangard
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Viktor Pugachev after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Daniil Sedov
“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.
Looking ahead31 Aug 2026
Rodina 2 next, and one man in the Avangard dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout31 Aug 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 Bohdan Shmyhelskyi is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Avangard asked and Metallurg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
He is 22 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Torpedo Miass, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout24 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.85 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Avangard had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout24 Aug 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 0‑2 Viktor Pugachev left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
10 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match15 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Avangard
A 1‑4 beating by Murom was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
7.83, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Dmitry Zakharov 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Avangard
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Knyazev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Valerii Yurchuk
“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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Avangard 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Viktor Pugachev to a room that had heard them before.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The formation has left Maksym Czekała behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Avangard will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Aug 2026
0‑5 to Kuban, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad10 Aug 2026
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market10 Aug 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 Avangard can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Avangard have done the hard part with Kaluga, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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 Avangard this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Maksym Czekała commits to Avangard for another 3 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nikolai Dobrynin is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yaroslav Smolnikov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dmitri Kurlov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Valerii Yurchuk and Avangard agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Danila Knyazev 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Belshina have kept their man, and Avangard go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Avangard are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Slonim have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market3 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Denis Konshin has his answer from Avangard; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.