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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Timur Matveev could afford to be generous.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Stanislav Biblyk may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgos Velkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead24 Sep 2029
Chernomorets take on the side everybody is chasing
Rubin 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Danila Meksh
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Arseny Kalugin is living that version at Chernomorets, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
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.
Arseny Kalugin is 20, and Chernomorets have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
6 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 dugout17 Sep 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Timur Matveev chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Sergey Aidarov
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $9.6K of what Chernomorets paid for Ilja Antsiferov is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Boardroom10 Sep 2029
Chernomorets close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 14 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.
Everything agreed with Krasnodar, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Stavropol have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imamutdin Djamalavov 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.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chernomorets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Chernomorets have done the hard part with Dinamo Makhachkala, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Krylya Sovetov keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Chernomorets asked and Baltika said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Botond Angyal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chernomorets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Chernomorets have done the hard part with Baltika, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Bartłomiej Ciepiela 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 Imamutdin Djamalavov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Chernomorets asked and Rubin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Imamutdin Djamalavov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑1 to Yenisey, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
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 Timur Matveev to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Stanislav Biblyk 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.
Chernomorets asked and Ural said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Chernomorets can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Botond Angyal 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
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 1‑4 Timur Matveev left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chernomorets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The terraces6 Aug 2029
The stands have turned
“Enough is enough. We have watched this for months.” 7 of the 30 senior players walked off to it, and the message was not aimed at any one of them.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Chernomorets have done the hard part with Dinamo Makhachkala, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shinnik have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imamutdin Djamalavov 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chernomorets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Danila Meksh has, at Chernomorets, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krylya Sovetov have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chernomorets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Bartłomiej Ciepiela 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.
Chernomorets asked and Rodina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Chernomorets will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Chernomorets
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniil Dulov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Igor Matveev 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rostislav Karimov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Imamutdin Djamalavov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
BoardroomA promise the Chernomorets board did not keep
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chernomorets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Chernomorets offered $450.0K; Akhmat Grozny said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Volna have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Imamutdin Djamalavov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Makhachkala: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Dudarev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chernomorets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer went to Akhmat Grozny this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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.
Chernomorets have gone to Volna with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Chernomorets offered $44.0K; Astrakhan said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Imamutdin Djamalavov and Chernomorets agree another 3 years.
Add another name to the list: Tyumen have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Maxim Matyusha. The answer from Chernomorets has not changed — yet.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Krasian Kolev was one of the reasons people came, and $890.0K does not replace that by itself.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krylya Sovetov have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Chernomorets will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Krasian Kolev 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.
Chernomorets asked and Lokomotiv Moscow 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
In brief
The dugoutZaurbek Pliev asks for a word with the manager
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ola Christoffer Holland will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chernomorets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ola Christoffer Holland has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Botond Angyal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Chernomorets will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Botond Angyal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chernomorets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Bartłomiej Ciepiela 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.
Nobody at Chernomorets will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad28 May 2029
Krasian Kolev 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Danil Polyakh 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bartłomiej Ciepiela trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 May 2029
Krasian Kolev 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chernomorets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ilja Antsiferov signs something — a contract at Chernomorets or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Imamutdin Djamalavov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dominik Pikulik trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Vitaly Borsuk is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Chernomorets, another week without a signature from Gustav Vik.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Georgy Natabashvili signs something — a contract at Chernomorets or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
24 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chernomorets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Stanislav Biblyk 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.
Squad7 May 2029
Krasian Kolev 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Chernomorets will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chernomorets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bartłomiej Ciepiela 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.
Everybody at Chernomorets saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 33 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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.
Boardroom23 Apr 2029
98% of the income goes out in wages at Chernomorets
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Botond Angyal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ilja Antsiferov signs something — a contract at Chernomorets or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
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 Vitaly Borsuk is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Botond Angyal has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Georgy Natabashvili signs something — a contract at Chernomorets or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Dudarev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chernomorets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
Danil Polyakh 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Chernomorets, another week without a signature from Ola Christoffer Holland.
Nobody at Chernomorets will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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 young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Chernomorets who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
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 Danil Polyakh is on it.
A new partner, a signature and a photograph nobody will remember. It funds a fortnight of wages, which is more than most headlines on this page can say for themselves.
Position 8 on 50 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Timur Alikberov provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Anton Antonov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Danil Krot has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Botond Angyal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Chernomorets pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
4 appearances, 0 clean sheets, and a goalkeeper no further forward than the day he left. Whether that belongs to him, to the club that borrowed him or to the people who arranged it is the argument Chernomorets will have this month.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Timur Matveev after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutNikita Korets knocks on the manager's door
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Chernomorets found something the first half had given no notice of, and Spartak Kostroma could not hold what they had.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bartłomiej Ciepiela provided it, and the 8.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Timur Alikberov did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Dudarev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chernomorets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Timur Alikberov, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.04
A mark of 8.04 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 20 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Timur Alikberov. 1‑0 against Chelyabinsk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ola Christoffer Holland is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Timofey Gusev 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.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chernomorets lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 1 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Emil Galimullin has just signed for Chernomorets, and for once the answer mattered.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Chernomorets will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chernomorets lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
Everything was agreed with Sokol and then the doctor spoke. Chernomorets have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Bartłomiej Ciepiela 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.
Chernomorets asked and Akron said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Irtysh have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Maximilian Onisiwo. The answer from Chernomorets has not changed — yet.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imamutdin Djamalavov 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.
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chernomorets lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Stavropol have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ilja Antsiferov 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Chernomorets can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chernomorets lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Chernomorets have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Two goals and a mark of 7.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Chernomorets now.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sokol have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bartłomiej Ciepiela. 2‑0 against Fakel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chernomorets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Chernomorets, and 3 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 93% of the Chernomorets income
Transfer targetsA loan move for Arseny Avvakumov is in the works
The words a physio says slowly. 56 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Chernomorets is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Timur Matveev on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The words a physio says slowly. 63 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chernomorets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Krasian Kolev 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.
Imamutdin Djamalavov 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.
100 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 71 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Imamutdin Djamalavov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 78 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
Bartłomiej Ciepiela 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 Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikita Korets, and the manager let it.
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
132% of the income goes out in wages at Chernomorets
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.
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Chernomorets, and 3 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
The words a physio says slowly. 85 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Timur Matveev after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Chernomorets told Jan Piasek something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chernomorets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chernomorets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Dudarev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Chernomorets told Danil Polyakh something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Timur Matveev was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Chernomorets dressing room was either.
The words a physio says slowly. 99 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Stanislav Biblyk 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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Krasian Kolev 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikita Korets 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.
9 combined actions and 6.90. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Timur Matveev on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
BoardroomThe numbers do not look good at Chernomorets
The words a physio says slowly. 107 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Krasian Kolev 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.
“I watch every Chernomorets game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ufa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Marked 8.15 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
7 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.
114 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chernomorets lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bartłomiej Ciepiela 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.
9.46. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Dudarev 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.
9 combined actions and 6.92. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Half the programme played, position 12, 21 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
121 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chernomorets lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chernomorets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Danil Polyakh 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Chernomorets told Imamutdin Djamalavov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Jan Piasek is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 128 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
Danil Polyakh 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.63, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Chernomorets can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Something was said to Konstantin Nizhegorodov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Marked 7.64 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Chernomorets had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Timur Matveev kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Bartłomiej Ciepiela 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 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bartłomiej Ciepiela, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Artem Dudarev 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.
Everybody at Chernomorets saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“I watch every Chernomorets game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ufa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutNikita Korets knocks on the manager’s door
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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
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 Ilja Antsiferov is on it.
Spartak Kostroma next, and one man in the Chernomorets dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maximilian Onisiwo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chernomorets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Stanislav Biblyk 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Krasian Kolev 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.
A performance of 8.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Timur Matveev kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Dudarev 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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
He is 20, and nobody at Chernomorets signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chernomorets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.57 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
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 18, and nobody at Chernomorets signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
In brief
SquadChernomorets are still strangers to each other
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Jan Piasek
Position 16 and 8 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dominik Pikulik is living that version at Chernomorets, and it tends to show in the first month.
Three points for Chernomorets, 3‑1 the final word against Rotor in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Timur Matveev on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
0‑3 to Fakel, 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.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chernomorets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
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.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
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 0‑3 Timur Matveev left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Dudarev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Zaur Baisurkaev has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Chernomorets asked and KAMAZ 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 new man at Chernomorets has worked with Nikita Korets before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Ilja Antsiferov 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Timur Matveev after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Irtysh waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Chernomorets is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 17 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.
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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Krasian Kolev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rubin have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The new man at Chernomorets has worked with Nikita Korets before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Chernomorets will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Chernomorets have done the hard part with Neftekhimik, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Nizhniy Novgorod pay $140.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Konovalov 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 new man at Chernomorets has worked with Nikita Korets before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chernomorets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
6 matches without a win, and then this, against SKA Khabarovsk. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
Chernomorets asked and Sokol 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 new man at Chernomorets has worked with Nikita Korets before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
6 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.
The phone has started ringing about Igor Konovalov again, and this time the name on the line is Alania. Chernomorets are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Chernomorets asked and Lokomotiv Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Chernomorets is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Danil Polyakh 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 new man at Chernomorets has worked with Nikita Korets before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Volgar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Chernomorets is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fakel have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Bartłomiej Ciepiela 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 new man at Chernomorets has worked with Nikita Korets before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
SquadWords at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Chernomorets had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Krylya Sovetov, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Krasian Kolev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rubin have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The new man at Chernomorets has worked with Nikita Korets before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Add another name to the list: Volgar have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Maximilian Onisiwo. The answer from Chernomorets has not changed — yet.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Chernomorets have done the hard part with Krylya Sovetov, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Chernomorets know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chernomorets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Kuban is saying, and nobody at Chernomorets is enjoying the guessing.
The deal with Lokomotiv Moscow is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Chernomorets are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imamutdin Djamalavov 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.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chernomorets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maximilian Onisiwo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chernomorets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Jul 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Chernomorets
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yuri Mukhin 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.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chernomorets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Krasian Kolev 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.
Chernomorets asked and Rubin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A loan enquiry to Krylya Sovetov: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Zaur Tarba 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 medical room confirms 18 days on the sidelines for Kamil Hajduk, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imamutdin Djamalavov 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.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chernomorets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutNikita Korets back under a manager who knows him
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Chernomorets people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Kuban keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Krasian Kolev 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.
Danil Polyakh 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.
Chernomorets have made the call to Rubin. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Ilja Antsiferov is on it.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Dinamo Makhachkala is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ziyad Al-Sahafi has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Chernomorets.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Ilja Zhigulev's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chernomorets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Bartłomiej Ciepiela 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 Imamutdin Djamalavov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Danil Polyakh is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chernomorets know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chernomorets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrey Bokovoy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chernomorets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Krasian Kolev 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 loan was meant to give him football. 3 games and 0 goals later he is back at Chernomorets no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
Nobody at Chernomorets will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chernomorets know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chernomorets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Stanislav Biblyk 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Chernomorets can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad29 May 2028
Krasian Kolev 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
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.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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.
“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 dugout22 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Ilja Zhigulev's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Imamutdin Djamalavov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chernomorets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kamil Hajduk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chernomorets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
Ziyad Al-Sahafi 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Chernomorets is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
BoardroomThe Chernomorets production line keeps running
93Edition
The Chernomorets Post
8 May 2028
From our football correspondentSteady
Boardroom8 May 2028
An order from above at Chernomorets: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chernomorets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Danil Polyakh 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.
“I watch every Chernomorets game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Khimik runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Chernomorets, another week without a signature from Zaurbek Pliev.
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 Emil Yanchev is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chernomorets know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chernomorets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
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 dugout1 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Ilja Kukharchuk's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Zaur Tarba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Chernomorets would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Chernomorets will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
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.
Boardroom24 Apr 2028
102% of the income goes out in wages at Chernomorets
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.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Ilja Zhigulev is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chernomorets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chernomorets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Krasian Kolev 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nobody at Chernomorets will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chernomorets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Stanislav Biblyk 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Chernomorets, and 3 appearances in 29 say he has earned the hearing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Imamutdin Djamalavov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chernomorets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Chernomorets will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chernomorets know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 8 on 49 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Ilja Zhigulev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
He is 21 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.
7.59, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Chernomorets had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Timur Matveev kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutIlja Kukharchuk is still being punished for one mistake
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Chernomorets know it.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
Ziyad Al-Sahafi 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.
“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.
Boardroom27 Mar 2028
108% of the income goes out in wages at Chernomorets
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Nobody at Chernomorets will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ilja Kukharchuk’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Chernomorets needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kamil Hajduk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chernomorets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Emil Yanchev 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Imamutdin Djamalavov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chernomorets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chernomorets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Kuban keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
Chelyabinsk will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Chernomorets were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
15 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
A brace, and Ulvi Babaev takes the afternoon — 8.55
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ulvi Babaev provided it, and the 8.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Zaur Tarba scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Anton Antonov and Chernomorets agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Krasian Kolev 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Arshak Petrosyan is living that version at Chernomorets, and it tends to show in the first month.
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 Feb 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulvi Babaev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Makhachkala have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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.
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.
14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kamil Hajduk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chernomorets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Chernomorets have done the hard part with Sokol, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Akron paid $660.0K and Chernomorets took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Chernomorets did not have in the autumn.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Ulvi Babaev 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Vitaly Borsuk 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.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrey Bokovoy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chernomorets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Chernomorets had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Kuban, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
Chernomorets asked and Fakel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Akron will make the call about Dmitry Yakovlev this week. Chernomorets have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Chernomorets are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Ulvi Babaev
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Orel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Chernomorets is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chernomorets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Zaur Tarba 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Ulvi Babaev 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shinnik have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Chernomorets are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ulvi Babaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Makhachkala have kept their man, and Chernomorets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“I watch every Chernomorets game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Khimik runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Emil Yanchev
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stanislav Biblyk provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chernomorets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Chernomorets are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krasian Kolev 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ulvi Babaev 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chernomorets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Andrey Bokovoy has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulvi Babaev 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Timur Matveev after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
10 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Tyumen the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Chernomorets will enjoy reviewing.
Two goals and a mark of 8.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
Ilja Zhigulev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulvi Babaev 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.
“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 ratings10 Jan 2028
Ulvi Babaev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.52. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
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 3‑5 Timur Matveev left the room before anybody could ask which.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Stanislav Biblyk 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 Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Timur Matveev, on a 4‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Dylan Ragolle
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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Ulvi Babaev 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.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Chernomorets, and 3 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Timur Matveev to a room that had heard them before.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chernomorets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulvi Babaev 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.
A 3‑1 win over Dinamo Moscow 2, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ulvi Babaev 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.
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.
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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Krasian Kolev 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Chernomorets are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Chernomorets will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Something was said to Ziyad Al-Sahafi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 15 combined actions and a mark of 7.02, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Chernomorets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulvi Babaev 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Chernomorets is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
After 13 games, Chernomorets finally taste it again
The first defeat in 13 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Shinnik; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“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 Chernomorets, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Ulvi Babaev 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.
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.
Position 10, 23 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Chernomorets and Volga, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Chernomorets know it.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Krasian Kolev 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chernomorets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ulvi Babaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Georgy Natabashvili, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ilja Kukharchuk's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Volga in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Chernomorets has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Georgy Natabashvili signs something — a contract at Chernomorets or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ulvi Babaev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Igor Konovalov is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
A 1‑1 draw with Spartak Kostroma leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Timur Matveev chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chernomorets can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Up for the corner, and Ilja Zhigulev delivers — 7.77
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ilja Zhigulev scored, was marked 7.77, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Krasian Kolev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Stanislav Biblyk. 2‑1 against Chelyabinsk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
In brief
The dugoutNikita Korets is still being punished for one mistake