The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Alexey Nikolayev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Chelyabinsk is running low.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Baba N'Diaye, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Garrik Levin 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.
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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
218% of the income goes out in wages at Chelyabinsk
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Alexey Nikolayev after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chelyabinsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Denis Firsov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑1 to Spartak Kostroma, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Dec 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Alexey Nikolayev to a room that had heard them before.
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Chelyabinsk will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A Chelyabinsk teenager takes the young player award
Baba N'Diaye is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Neftekhimik in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
18 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and KAMAZ were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Chelyabinsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Baba N'Diaye 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vitaliy Kombarov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Pavel Antonov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Artem Tushin is living that version at Chelyabinsk, and it tends to show in the first month.
The shirt still fits. Artem Tushin is back at Chelyabinsk, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Garrik Levin 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Denis Firsov
Garrik Levin 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.
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.
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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alexey Nikolayev after 0‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Zyryanov 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.
15 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.
Baba N'Diaye 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.
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.
13 goals in 12 games at Torpedo Miass — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Chelyabinsk updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Chelyabinsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Khetag Kochiev
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chelyabinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Matvey Urvantsev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 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.
Garrik Levin 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 Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khetag Kochiev 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Nikolai Dudko has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vladlen Bondarenko 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 87. Volga had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Zyryanov 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Edwin Montero is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nikita Zyryanov has his answer from Chelyabinsk; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikita Zyryanov, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Alexey Nikolayev was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Chelyabinsk dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutNikita Zyryanov is still being punished for one mistake
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matvey Urvantsev did not need any: 7.73, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mark Pereverzev is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 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.
6 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.
Garrik Levin 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fedor Rumyantsev 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Egor Abdulov 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.
17 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.
Volga go through and Chelyabinsk go home, 0‑5 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
Chelyabinsk are taken apart by Volga — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-5. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Garrik Levin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Baba N'Diaye 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khetag Kochiev 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.70, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Chelyabinsk were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
He is 20, and nobody at Chelyabinsk signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Chelyabinsk are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Atyrau moved on, Konstantin Kertanov reports back to Chelyabinsk, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Yenisey keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Chelyabinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khetag Kochiev 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Daniil Titov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Oleg Kalinichev 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.
SquadBaba N'Diaye is the weekend's best young player
6Edition
The Chelyabinsk Herald
7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondentCrisis
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Baba N'Diaye takes the afternoon — 8.73
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Baba N'Diaye provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Baba N'Diaye 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.
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.62, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Alexey Nikolayev was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Chelyabinsk dressing room was either.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Bulat Bakirov has just signed for Chelyabinsk, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Chelyabinsk have made the call to Yenisey. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikita Zyryanov, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Alexey Nikolayev was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Chelyabinsk dressing room was either.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Chelyabinsk had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Yenisey, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Garrik Levin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khetag Kochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Alexey Nikolayev to a room that had heard them before.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chelyabinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Cherepovets will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Kirill Kulkov has pre-agreed a move to Chelyabinsk, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Chelyabinsk asked and Textilschik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 19 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Boris Popov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Miroslav Klimov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Khetag Kochiev and Chelyabinsk agree another 4 years.
Garrik Levin 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Belshina have kept their man, and Chelyabinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
19 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.
36 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.