From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑4 by Rodina, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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 ratings5 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ilja Zhigulev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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 ratings5 Oct 2026
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
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The dugout
No hiding place for Zaurbek Pliev
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Chernomorets dressing room in a hurry
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Match26 Sep 2026
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 ratings28 Sep 2026
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.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Ural leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“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 ahead28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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 ratings21 Sep 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad21 Sep 2026
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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 targets14 Sep 2026
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.
Market14 Sep 2026
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Shinnik left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Match5 Sep 2026
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 ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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 ratings7 Sep 2026
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.
Match5 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
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 ratings31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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 dugout31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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 ratings31 Aug 2026
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
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
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Market
Experience through the door at Chernomorets
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Looking ahead
Kirill Morozov faces his old club
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.13, and nobody on the pitch better.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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 targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Match22 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Danil Krot has left for Rodina M in a $3.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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 targets17 Aug 2026
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 ratings17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chernomorets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Market17 Aug 2026
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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Ufa leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
In brief
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Market
The Danil Krot conversation is coming
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
No hiding place for Ivan Chesnakov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Aug 2026
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 ratings10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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 targets10 Aug 2026
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 targets10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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 terraces3 Aug 2026
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Match1 Aug 2026
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.
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
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.