Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Cherepovets will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Cherepovets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Popkov 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Cherepovets can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cherepovets, another week without a signature from Bogdan Ruppel.
Squad3 May 2027
Artem Popkov 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.
Vladimir Zubkov 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.
In brief
SquadSemyon Abramov loses the manager who believed in him
Boardroom$331.8K taken back off the Cherepovets table
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Cherepovets is running low.
Dmitry Serebryakov 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Cherepovets, and it is not being withdrawn.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 Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kirill Kulkov 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Artem Popkov 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Fyodor Kerzhakov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Dmitry Serebryakov 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 Dmitry Serebryakov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The mood at Cherepovets has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Cherepovets
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Semyon Abramov 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.
In brief
SquadArtem Popkov falls out with a teammate over standards
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cherepovets can pretend not to have heard.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Cherepovets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Popkov 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.
Vladimir Zubkov 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.
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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Fyodor Kerzhakov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Dmitry Serebryakov 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Cherepovets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Popkov 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 squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Semyon Abramov is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cherepovets know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The mood at Cherepovets has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Cherepovets
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him 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 Cherepovets can pretend not to have heard.
Semyon Abramov 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cherepovets, another week without a signature from Bogdan Ruppel.
In brief
SquadArtem Popkov falls out with a teammate over standards
SquadSemyon Abramov loses the manager who believed in him
MarketThe window shut and Mikhail Zykov is still in the building
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cherepovets 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 Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Cherepovets, 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 Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Artem Popkov 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Cherepovets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Shabunya 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.
BoardroomCherepovets pull $331.8K back off the table
27Edition
The Cherepovets Herald
1 Feb 2027
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces1 Feb 2027
The mood at Cherepovets has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Cherepovets is running low.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cherepovets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Semyon Abramov 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cherepovets 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.” Cherepovets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A 2‑1 win over Luki-Energiya, 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. Kirill Kulkov 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yegor Kostryukhin, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Cherepovets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Popkov 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 Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Cherepovets, 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 Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vsevolod Pershin is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Cherepovets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Shabunya 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Tver? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cherepovets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Kirill Kulkov 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.
Dmitry Serebryakov 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.
Semyon Abramov 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Cherepovets can tell you which week it ends in.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vladislav Shabunya and Cherepovets agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cherepovets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Cherepovets have gone and got theirs early.
Position 14 and 15 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.
4 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.
Bogdan Ruppel is 20, and Cherepovets 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.
He is 20, and nobody at Cherepovets signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Cherepovets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Karamyshev 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cherepovets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cherepovets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Semyon Abramov 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cherepovets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Nobody at Cherepovets 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.
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.
0‑3 to Spartak Moscow 2, 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 Cherepovets, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cherepovets 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 Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cherepovets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Stepan Asharin 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Savely Kunavin and Cherepovets agree another 3 years.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cherepovets can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elnur Khalygov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cherepovets 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 Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cherepovets, another week without a signature from Elnur Khalygov.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cherepovets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nobody at Cherepovets 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.
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.
Position 14 and 9 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilja Antsiferov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cherepovets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Cherepovets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Cherepovets can tell you which week it ends in.
10 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cherepovets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cherepovets 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 Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Cherepovets dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cherepovets 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 Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Cherepovets could ask drops and the wages Elnur Khalygov can ask rise.
8 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Berezov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cherepovets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Cherepovets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yegor Kostryukhin and Cherepovets agree another 1 years.
Nobody at Cherepovets 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cherepovets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Kirill Kulkov 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 Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cherepovets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cherepovets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Elnur Khalygov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.73
A mark of 7.73 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cherepovets, another week without a signature from David Berezov.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cherepovets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Elnur Khalygov’s negotiating for him
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cherepovets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Cherepovets, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cherepovets, another week without a signature from Ilja Antsiferov.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Anton Balashov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Cherepovets have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilja Antsiferov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cherepovets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer from Rodina M for Kirill Kulkov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Semyon Abramov 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vladimir Zubkov and Cherepovets agree another 3 years.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The offer from Legion for Dmitry Serebryakov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cherepovets can pretend not to have heard.
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.
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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Cherepovets have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
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.
Salyut did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $54.0K for Semyon Abramov, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Cherepovets spend $54.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $54.0K for Semyon Abramov, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The offer from KDV Tomsk for Ilja Antsiferov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elnur Khalygov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cherepovets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Elnur Khalygov provided it, and the 8.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Add another name to the list: Kaluga have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about David Berezov. The answer from Cherepovets has not changed — yet.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Kirill Kulkov 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 Cherepovets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yuri Fomin is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cherepovets can pretend not to have heard.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Yegor Kostryukhin has his answer from Cherepovets; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Still no offer on the table, and Anton Balashov’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.