Chernomorets U21

11 Oct 2026
Sunday
Process
10 Edition

The Chernomorets Post

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Dato Chertkoev sends Chernomorets through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Dato Chertkoev obliged against Dinamo Bryansk. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Chernomorets.

Match

A hiding for Chernomorets

Beaten 0‑4 by Rodina, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Squad

Georgy Natabashvili stands alone

8 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.

Player ratings

Anton Antonov was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 22. 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Chernomorets

Ilja Zhigulev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Diego Arismendi signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Diego Arismendi and Chernomorets agree another 2 years.

Boardroom

Wages swallow 158% of the Chernomorets 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Chernomorets

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zaurbek Pliev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

One of those days for Dato Chertkoev

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.

In brief

  • The dugout No hiding place for Zaurbek Pliev
  • Boardroom Nobody left the Chernomorets dressing room in a hurry
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
Back issues
9 Edition

The Chernomorets Post

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

No end in sight to Chernomorets's wait for a win

9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Chernomorets has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Words exchanged at Chernomorets

Ilja Zhigulev 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.

Squad

Stepan Melnikov 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.

Match

Chernomorets refuse to lose to Ural

A point taken on 94 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.

Player ratings

The afternoon belonged to Anton Antonov

A mark of 7.90, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.

Match

Chernomorets share the spoils with Ural

A 1‑1 draw with Ural leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

The dugout

Stanislav Gorshkov: “We have to be better”

“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.

Looking ahead

A test against the best for Chernomorets

The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Rodina.

Squad

No place for Vinícius Carvalho in the new shape

He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Chernomorets are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.

In brief

8 Edition

The Chernomorets Post

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to Chernomorets's wait for a win

8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Chernomorets has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Tempers go at Chernomorets

Ilja Zhigulev 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 ratings

Danil Karpov runs at them all day

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.

Squad

A row about effort at Chernomorets

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stepan Melnikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Danil Karpov’s goal not enough for Chernomorets

Danil Karpov scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Torpedo Moscow, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Georgy Natabashvili

“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.

Squad

100 appearances for Zaur Tarba

100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Chernomorets

12 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 dugout

Stanislav Gorshkov faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Stanislav Gorshkov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

In brief

7 Edition

The Chernomorets Post

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A fracture rules Ilja Zhigulev out for 20 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chernomorets will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

No end in sight to Chernomorets's wait for a win

7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Chernomorets has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Georgy Natabashvili stands alone

6 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.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 18 signed and 3 gone

That is the business done at Chernomorets until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.

Squad

A falling-out at Chernomorets

Stepan Melnikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Chernomorets rebuffed over Nikita Matskharashvili

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sibir have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

One of our own: Yaroslav Polivanov joins the Chernomorets first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yaroslav Polivanov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Match

Chernomorets come up short against Shinnik

Shinnik left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

Zaurbek Pliev 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.

In brief

6 Edition

The Chernomorets Post

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

27 days out for Ilja Zhigulev after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Chernomorets will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Match

6 matches without a win for Chernomorets

The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Chernomorets are no longer polite ones.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Anton Antonov

Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

A muscle injury and 17 days out for Romario Da Silva

The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Chernomorets will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.

Squad

Tempers go at Chernomorets

Romario Da Silva 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.

Boardroom

Ivan Ovsyankin will join Chernomorets for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ivan Ovsyankin has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Chernomorets have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.

Squad

A row about effort at Chernomorets

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stepan Melnikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Zaurbek Pliev gives it away

There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Chernomorets lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.

Match

Chernomorets and Volga take a point apiece

It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

In brief

5 Edition

The Chernomorets Post

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Ilja Zhigulev breaks a bone — 35 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Match

The wait goes on for Chernomorets

5 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.

Player ratings

A defender's goal wins it for Chernomorets — 7.88

1 for Igor Konovalov, marked 7.88, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.

Squad

Words exchanged at Chernomorets

Ilja Zhigulev 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 dugout

Magomed Abakarov 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.

Squad

Kirill Morozov reaches 200 appearances

200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.

Squad

Dato Chertkoev 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.

Player ratings

Danil Karpov was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 16. 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.

Match

Chernomorets and SKA Khabarovsk take a point apiece

It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

In brief

  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • Market Experience through the door at Chernomorets
  • Looking ahead Kirill Morozov faces his old club
4 Edition

The Chernomorets Post

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A fracture rules Ilja Zhigulev out for 43 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chernomorets will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Anton Antonov

Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

Vintage Kirill Suslov — 8.13

At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.13, and nobody on the pitch better.

Transfer targets

Bogdan Sheiko due for a Chernomorets medical

Everything agreed with Lokomotiv Moscow, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Roman Kovalev rejects the move

Chernomorets had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at CSKA Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Match

No end in sight to Chernomorets's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Chernomorets has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Words exchanged at Chernomorets

Stepan Melnikov 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.

Boardroom

Chernomorets beat the market to Nikolay Edjibia from Luki-Energiya

Luki-Energiya will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Nikolay Edjibia has pre-agreed a move to Chernomorets, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.

Market

Chernomorets sell Danil Krot for $3.0K

Danil Krot has left for Rodina M in a $3.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

In brief

3 Edition

The Chernomorets Post

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Ilja Zhigulev breaks a bone — 50 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

A move Danil Karpov would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Danil Karpov is living that version at Chernomorets, and it tends to show in the first month.

Transfer targets

Ruslan Bart turns down Chernomorets

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sochi keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Player ratings

Dato Chertkoev was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 22. 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.

Squad

Ilja Zhigulev 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 Chernomorets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

Chernomorets agree a free transfer for Daniyal Gadjiev

Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.

Squad

Stepan Melnikov 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.

Market

Magomed Abakarov already looking beyond Chernomorets

He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.

Match

Chernomorets share the spoils with Ufa

A 1‑1 draw with Ufa leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

In brief

  • Market The Danil Krot conversation is coming
  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • The dugout No hiding place for Ivan Chesnakov
2 Edition

The Chernomorets Post

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A fracture rules Ilja Zhigulev out for 57 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chernomorets will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Player ratings

Anton Antonov was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 27. 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.

Squad

A move Dato Chertkoev would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dato Chertkoev is living that version at Chernomorets, and it tends to show in the first month.

Transfer targets

Danil Karpov due for a Chernomorets medical

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.

Transfer targets

Bruno Miño turns down Chernomorets

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Almirante Brown keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Market

Dato Chertkoev comes home

The shirt still fits. Dato Chertkoev is back at Chernomorets, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.

Market

As if he never left: Magomed Abakarov returns

Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Magomed Abakarov is a Chernomorets player again, and the town has its story of the summer.

Squad

Words exchanged at Chernomorets

Ilja Zhigulev 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.

Boardroom

Dmitry Serebryakov will join Chernomorets for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Dmitry Serebryakov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Chernomorets have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.

In brief

1 Edition

The Chernomorets Post

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Zaur Tarba goes up and wins it — 7.86

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 7.86 for the rest of it.

Squad

Ilja Zhigulev signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ilja Zhigulev and Chernomorets agree another 2 years.

Squad

A falling-out at Chernomorets

Ilja Zhigulev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Zaur Tarba

At 23 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.

Market

Volna join the queue for Timur Alikberov

Add another name to the list: Volna have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Timur Alikberov. The answer from Chernomorets has not changed — yet.

Squad

Zaurbek Pliev 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.

Match

Late, late show earns Chernomorets a point

Minute 88, against Rotor, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

Market

Nobody at Chernomorets has picked up the phone to Krasian Kolev

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 targets

A loan move for Bruno Miño is in the works

Chernomorets have made the call to Almirante Brown. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

In brief