From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match4 Aug 2029
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑0 against Rotor 2, and it could have been more.
Market6 Aug 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad6 Aug 2029
The match ball belongs to Vojtěch Hranoš, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings6 Aug 2029
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.
Match4 Aug 2029
Irkutsk make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Irkutsk have 4 straight wins of it.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
An order from above at Irkutsk: 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.
Market6 Aug 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Irkutsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Marek Jaroň 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.
Match4 Aug 2029
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Irkutsk and Rotor 2, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Jul 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
This is not rotation. Artem Tarasov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Irkutsk is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
Irkutsk asked and Salyut said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
The borrowing at Irkutsk reaches $5.7M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $5.7M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lenny Cuccaro 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.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to Spartak Tambov: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
Irkutsk can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
Oleg Bulatnikov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Jul 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings23 Jul 2029
Aly Tagiev goes up and wins it — 7.68
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.68 for the rest of it.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
“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.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Everything agreed with Arsenal Tula, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Match21 Jul 2029
Nobody wants to play Irkutsk right now
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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Kirill Kiryanin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Irkutsk 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 dugout23 Jul 2029
This is not rotation. Panormitis Kaliaros has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Irkutsk is pretending otherwise.
Match21 Jul 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aly Tagiev. 1‑0 against Metallurg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Jul 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Irkutsk
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.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
Irkutsk asked and Murom said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market16 Jul 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yefrem Kozhemyakin has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market16 Jul 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bogdan Zimnin has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market16 Jul 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Kirill Kalinichev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
A promise the Irkutsk board did not keep
There was a commitment, there was a date, and the date went past. Trust at a football club takes years to build and one afternoon to spend.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Tarasov 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Jul 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market9 Jul 2029
Artem Tarasov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Market9 Jul 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Irkutsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Marek Jaroň 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.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Irkutsk asked and Amkar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Lenny Cuccaro 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.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Murom have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Salyut have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market9 Jul 2029
At 37, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Jul 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rubin keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The dugout2 Jul 2029
This is not rotation. Artem Tarasov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Irkutsk is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Irkutsk asked and PSK Pervorechenskoe said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
Irkutsk are $5.7M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Lenny Cuccaro 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.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Ovsyankin 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.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
PSK Pervorechenskoe have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
A loan move for Gadji Budunov is in the works
Irkutsk have made the call to Arsenal Tula. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
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Boardroom
4 new boys at the Irkutsk academy
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Boardroom
Nobody arrives at Irkutsk until somebody leaves
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Squad
Danila Strebtsov slips down the pecking order
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Jun 2029
“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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Irkutsk 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Ivan Ovsyankin 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
“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 Irkutsk know it.
Market25 Jun 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Irkutsk, another week without a signature from Kirill Kiryanin.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Tarasov 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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Metallurg have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
Aly Tagiev asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market25 Jun 2029
The name of Timur Yakovlev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Irkutsk say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Irkutsk have done the hard part with Rubin, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
Irkutsk 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Ovsyankin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
Kaluga have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
Mehmet Gunok gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market18 Jun 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Marek Jaroň’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
The window opens at Irkutsk
A month in which every rumour is possible and most of them are nonsense. The manager has a list, the board has a number, and neither is telling the other the whole of it.
Market18 Jun 2029
6 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Irkutsk money.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Jun 2029
“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.
Market11 Jun 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Irkutsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Marek Jaroň 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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lenny Cuccaro 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 dugout11 Jun 2029
Oleg Bulatnikov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market11 Jun 2029
The name of Vojtěch Hranoš keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Irkutsk say nothing, which says plenty.
Market11 Jun 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Irkutsk, another week without a signature from Ilja Romaschuk.
Match11 Jun 2029
Continental football is in reach for Irkutsk
55 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
Daniil Zharov gets picked when it counts
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 Daniil Zharov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Jun 2029
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Jun 2029
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Irkutsk have had the benefit of it.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Oleg Bulatnikov 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.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
The borrowing at Irkutsk reaches $5.6M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $5.6M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Market4 Jun 2029
He is 20, and nobody at Irkutsk signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market4 Jun 2029
Ondrej Barak is 18, and Irkutsk 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Artem Tarasov has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
Irkutsk can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
Oleg Bulatnikov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 May 2029
Vadim Bogdanov damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Market28 May 2029
“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.
Squad28 May 2029
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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 May 2029
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Dol was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 May 2029
Sergey Zuikov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Irkutsk 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.
Market28 May 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Irkutsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 May 2029
Vadim Bogdanov damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Squad21 May 2029
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 May 2029
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Dol was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 May 2029
“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 Irkutsk know it.
The dugout21 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilja Romaschuk, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 May 2029
Artem Tarasov knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Irkutsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 May 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vadim Bogdanov
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Irkutsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market14 May 2029
“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.
Market14 May 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Irkutsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 May 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vojtěch Hranoš and Irkutsk agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 May 2029
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 May 2029
Aly Tagiev knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aly Tagiev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market14 May 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Irkutsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market14 May 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout14 May 2029
Daniil Zharov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Irkutsk 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 May 2029
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Irkutsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market7 May 2029
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Dol 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.
Squad7 May 2029
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Panormitis Kaliaros and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 May 2029
“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.
Boardroom7 May 2029
Nobody arrives at Irkutsk until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Irkutsk this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
The dugout7 May 2029
Danila Strebtsov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Irkutsk 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.
The dugout7 May 2029
Aly Tagiev knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Irkutsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market7 May 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rouben Nguyen signs something — a contract at Irkutsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Apr 2029
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Irkutsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market30 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Dol was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad30 Apr 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Irkutsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
Sergey Zuikov gets picked when it counts
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 Sergey Zuikov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Apr 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vadim Bogdanov
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Irkutsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Apr 2029
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Apr 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sergey Zuikov commits to Irkutsk for another 1 years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Apr 2029
60 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Irkutsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market16 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Irkutsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Yaroslav Dol 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
Oleg Bulatnikov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“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.
Market16 Apr 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Irkutsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
Daniil Zharov gets picked when it counts
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 Daniil Zharov is on it.
Market16 Apr 2029
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Irkutsk money.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Apr 2029
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Marek Jaroň 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Dol 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.
Boardroom9 Apr 2029
Irkutsk can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
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 Danila Strebtsov is on it.
Market9 Apr 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Oleg Bulatnikov signs something — a contract at Irkutsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Artem Tarasov 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 dugout2 Apr 2029
“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 dugout2 Apr 2029
Sergey Zuikov gets picked when it counts
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 Sergey Zuikov is on it.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
Artem Tarasov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market2 Apr 2029
The name of Rouben Nguyen keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Irkutsk say nothing, which says plenty.
The terraces2 Apr 2029
The Vojtěch Hranoš rumours reach the terraces
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Irkutsk would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Daniil Zharov has had enough of the bench
“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 Irkutsk will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Mar 2029
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Mar 2029
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Dol was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
The manager makes an example of Aly Tagiev
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
Artem Tarasov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artem Tarasov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market26 Mar 2029
The name of Timur Yakovlev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Irkutsk say nothing, which says plenty.
Market26 Mar 2029
Irkutsk have let the market know Artem Tarasov can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Mar 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
Daniil Kalmykov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Irkutsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market19 Mar 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Irkutsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Mar 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Irkutsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Panormitis Kaliaros 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Ivan Ovsyankin 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 dugout19 Mar 2029
Aly Tagiev knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aly Tagiev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market19 Mar 2029
Marek Jaroň linked with a move away
The name of Marek Jaroň keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Irkutsk say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
Daniil Zharov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Irkutsk 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Mar 2029
Marek Jaroň 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.
Transfer targets12 Mar 2029
Irkutsk asked and Zvezda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market12 Mar 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ivan Ovsyankin has his answer from Irkutsk; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Boardroom12 Mar 2029
Irkutsk can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
Squad12 Mar 2029
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.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
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 Danila Strebtsov is on it.
Market12 Mar 2029
The name of Vojtěch Hranoš keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Irkutsk say nothing, which says plenty.
Market12 Mar 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Match12 Mar 2029
Irkutsk in the hunt for Europe
Position 4, 55 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Mar 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Market5 Mar 2029
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Transfer targets5 Mar 2029
Irkutsk asked and Amkar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Dol 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ali Torabi commits to Irkutsk for another 3 years.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
Wages swallow 89% of the Irkutsk income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Artem Tarasov named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Artem Tarasov is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Irkutsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Feb 2029
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑2 against Orel, and it could have been more.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
A brace, and Yaroslav Dol takes the afternoon — 8.48
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yaroslav Dol provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
A brace, and Timur Yakovlev takes the afternoon — 8.39
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Timur Yakovlev provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market26 Feb 2029
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Irkutsk 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.
Match24 Feb 2029
Yaroslav Dol among the goals in a wild afternoon
8 goals in one match, Yaroslav Dol on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Irkutsk and Orel.
Transfer targets26 Feb 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fakel have kept their man, and Irkutsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces26 Feb 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Artem Tarasov 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Feb 2029
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Match17 Feb 2029
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against SKA Khabarovsk 2, and it could have been more.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Vojtěch Hranoš
24 goals and a season average of 7.26 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market19 Feb 2029
“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.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Irkutsk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market19 Feb 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniil Kalmykov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Irkutsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets19 Feb 2029
The deal with Dinamo Bryansk 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets19 Feb 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rotor have kept their man, and Irkutsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Feb 2029
Irkutsk say no — this time
The offer from Rostov for Vojtěch Hranoš 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.
Market12 Feb 2029
“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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Marek Jaroň 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.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match10 Feb 2029
Spartak Tambov left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Feb 2029
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 dugout12 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kamil Kaczówka, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Feb 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 0‑1 Grigory Safonov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Ivan Ovsyankin falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Nikolay Alekhin is in the works
-
Transfer targets
A loan move for Matvey Kholin is in the works
-
Boardroom
Nobody arrives at Irkutsk until somebody leaves
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Feb 2029
“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.
Market5 Feb 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Irkutsk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
Irkutsk had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at CSKA Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Transfer targets5 Feb 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match3 Feb 2029
Znamya Truda left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sergey Mokrousov, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match27 Jan 2029
Strogino will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Irkutsk were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market29 Jan 2029
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Jan 2029
23 goals and a season average of 7.27. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Irkutsk have done the hard part with Neftyanik, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad29 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces29 Jan 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Vojtěch Hranoš 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.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Ninety minutes of Marek Jaroň at his very best
Marked 8.46. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Irkutsk.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Marked 8.41 — 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.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
A performance of 8.06 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Jan 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Vojtěch Hranoš
22 goals and a season average of 7.26 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match20 Jan 2029
Rodina M made Irkutsk work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Ninety minutes of Timur Yakovlev at his very best
Marked 8.24. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Irkutsk.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Ivan Ovsyankin 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 dugout22 Jan 2029
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Grigory Safonov could afford to be generous.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
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.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
Mehmet Gunok gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Marek Jaroň 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.
Match13 Jan 2029
Arsenal Tula 2 left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Kamil Kaczówka
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad15 Jan 2029
“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; Irkutsk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Ivan Ovsyankin 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 dugout15 Jan 2029
Oleg Bulatnikov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Jan 2029
“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.
Match6 Jan 2029
1‑2 to Dinamo Bryansk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Danila Strebtsov
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Irkutsk will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
“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 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
87% of the income goes out in wages at Irkutsk
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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Yaroslav Dol named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Yaroslav Dol is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market8 Jan 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Irkutsk, another week without a signature from Kamil Kaczówka.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
21 goals and a season average of 7.29. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad1 Jan 2029
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Irkutsk have had the benefit of it.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Kirill Kiryanin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces1 Jan 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Vojtěch Hranoš 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.
Match30 Dec 2028
A 2‑0 win over Irtysh, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Looking ahead1 Jan 2029
Top-of-the-table clash for Irkutsk
Dinamo Bryansk next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
A performance of 8.25 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match25 Dec 2028
Irkutsk refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 40 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
The numbers do not look good at Irkutsk
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 dugout25 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dawid Keller, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Tarasov 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 dugout25 Dec 2028
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.” Grigory Safonov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad25 Dec 2028
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Irkutsk lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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.
Match23 Dec 2028
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Zenit Penza came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Dec 2028
Marek Jaroň 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.
Match16 Dec 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Irkutsk and Salyut, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match16 Dec 2028
A bad afternoon for Irkutsk against Salyut
2‑4 to Salyut, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match16 Dec 2028
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleg Bulatnikov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Ninety minutes of Marek Jaroň at his very best
Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Irkutsk.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
Dawid Keller knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dawid Keller trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 2 saves does not settle it either way.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad11 Dec 2028
Maxwell Kubasu damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Market11 Dec 2028
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match9 Dec 2028
Irkutsk make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Irkutsk have 5 straight wins of it.
Squad11 Dec 2028
A season average of 7.32 with 20 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match9 Dec 2028
Kvant made Irkutsk work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match9 Dec 2028
Irkutsk settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Kvant spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
A performance of 8.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
In brief
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Boardroom
Wages swallow 123% of the Irkutsk income
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Squad
A row about effort at Irkutsk
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Kamil Kaczówka
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad4 Dec 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maxwell Kubasu
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Irkutsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match2 Dec 2028
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.40, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“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.
Market4 Dec 2028
“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.
Match2 Dec 2028
Nobody wants to play Irkutsk right now
4 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
A season average of 7.30 with 19 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad4 Dec 2028
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces4 Dec 2028
At 22 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad27 Nov 2028
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Irkutsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match27 Nov 2028
Irkutsk up to position 2
33 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
Belts tighten at Irkutsk
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.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Daniil Zharov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Irkutsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
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 Danila Strebtsov is on it.
Market27 Nov 2028
Marek Jaroň linked with a move away
The name of Marek Jaroň keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Irkutsk say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad27 Nov 2028
“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 Irkutsk will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Nov 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maxwell Kubasu
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Irkutsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market20 Nov 2028
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Irkutsk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad20 Nov 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vojtěch Hranoš and Irkutsk agree another 5 years.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Dawid Keller gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad20 Nov 2028
“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; Irkutsk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Nov 2028
Maxwell Kubasu damages knee ligaments — 46 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
Market13 Nov 2028
“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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match11 Nov 2028
Nobody wants to play Irkutsk right now
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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
17 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Match11 Nov 2028
Metallurg made Irkutsk work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Vojtěch Hranoš was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
Match13 Nov 2028
Halfway: Irkutsk sit in position 1
33 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Nov 2028
Maxwell Kubasu damages knee ligaments — 53 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
Match4 Nov 2028
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Dawid Keller was at the centre of it, Orel were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Market6 Nov 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match4 Nov 2028
Orel made Irkutsk work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
Wages eat 139% of everything Irkutsk earn
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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Irkutsk is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Dawid Keller was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Marked 8.03 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Oct 2028
7 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match28 Oct 2028
SKA Khabarovsk 2 will want this one forgotten quickly: 13‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Irkutsk were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad30 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maxwell Kubasu
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Irkutsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Yaroslav Dol takes the match ball home
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match30 Oct 2028
First, on 27 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
Irkutsk counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Irkutsk now.
Market30 Oct 2028
Lenny Cuccaro hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Irkutsk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Oct 2028
Maxwell Kubasu damages knee ligaments — 67 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 67 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.
Match23 Oct 2028
Irkutsk refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 24 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Marek Jaroň 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 dugout23 Oct 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad23 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sergey Zuikov commits to Irkutsk for another 1 years.
Match21 Oct 2028
Irkutsk hit back inside 2 minutes
Spartak Tambov held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Irkutsk answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
The afternoon belonged to Marek Jaroň
A mark of 7.74, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad23 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Ovsyankin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match21 Oct 2028
It needed Yaroslav Dol to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Spartak Tambov, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Oct 2028
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Irkutsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market16 Oct 2028
Kirill Butsev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Danila Strebtsov commits to Irkutsk for another 3 years.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
Dawid Keller gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Irkutsk told Sergey Zuikov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad16 Oct 2028
The formation has left Mehmet Gunok behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Irkutsk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
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.
Looking ahead16 Oct 2028
Spartak Tambov next, and one man in the Irkutsk dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Oct 2028
Maxwell Kubasu damages knee ligaments — 81 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 81 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.
Match4 Oct 2028
The small margins put Irkutsk out
Out, 0‑2 to Shinnik, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match7 Oct 2028
3‑0, and Vojtěch Hranoš took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Irkutsk tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad9 Oct 2028
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market9 Oct 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Oleg Bulatnikov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Irkutsk.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
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.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Ninety minutes of Marek Jaroň at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Irkutsk.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Marked 8.10 — 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
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Market
Irkutsk buy the years ahead of Mehmet Gunok
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Oct 2028
Maxwell Kubasu damages knee ligaments — 88 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 88 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.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
Irkutsk counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Irkutsk now.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
Wages swallow 124% of the Irkutsk income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Match30 Sep 2028
A goal on 87 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad2 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
A mark of 7.64, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Ivan Ovsyankin falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Sep 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maxwell Kubasu
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Irkutsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match25 Sep 2028
Irkutsk refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 19 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Marek Jaroň was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The terraces25 Sep 2028
He is 22 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.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of Kamil Kaczówka
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
7.91, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Irkutsk had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Match23 Sep 2028
It needed Vojtěch Hranoš to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Rodina M, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Sep 2028
102 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Irkutsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market18 Sep 2028
Kirill Butsev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Match16 Sep 2028
After 7 games, Irkutsk finally taste it again
The first defeat in 7 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Arsenal Tula 2; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Transfer targets18 Sep 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Irkutsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match16 Sep 2028
Arsenal Tula 2 left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
“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 dugout18 Sep 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Ovsyankin 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Sep 2028
109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Irkutsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market11 Sep 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Irkutsk close the window on a squad of their own making
15 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
Irkutsk asked and Amkar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Irkutsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad11 Sep 2028
No place for Yaroslav Dol in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Irkutsk are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market11 Sep 2028
Aly Tagiev is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Irkutsk has been clear about where Aly Tagiev stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad4 Sep 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maxwell Kubasu
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Irkutsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Sep 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Match2 Sep 2028
Nobody wants to play Irkutsk right now
7 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.
Match2 Sep 2028
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Dinamo Bryansk spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
This is not rotation. Yaroslav Voronkov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Irkutsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad4 Sep 2028
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match2 Sep 2028
Irkutsk are at home on the road
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match2 Sep 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Artūrs Karašausks’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Irkutsk.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad28 Aug 2028
Maxwell Kubasu damages knee ligaments — 123 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 123 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.
Market28 Aug 2028
“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.
Match26 Aug 2028
Irkutsk cannot stop winning
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Filip Chadała has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Irkutsk is pretending otherwise.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Yaroslav Voronkov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match19 Aug 2028
Nobody wants to play Irkutsk right now
5 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.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Daniil Zharov, 18, steals the show — 7.61
Marked 7.61 at 18, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Artem Karasev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Irkutsk is pretending otherwise.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Marek Jaroň 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.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
The numbers do not look good at Irkutsk
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.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Irkutsk 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout14 Aug 2028
Lenny Cuccaro: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Irkutsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market14 Aug 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Match12 Aug 2028
Irkutsk make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Irkutsk have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad14 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
Irkutsk asked and Ryazan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match12 Aug 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Timur Yakovlev. 2‑1 against Salyut, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
“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 ratings14 Aug 2028
Ninety minutes of Timur Yakovlev at his very best
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Irkutsk.
Squad14 Aug 2028
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Aug 2028
Osmane Ndiaye hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
“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.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Yaroslav Voronkov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Irkutsk is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
The Irkutsk board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad7 Aug 2028
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Aug 2028
Kvant made Irkutsk work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
Irkutsk asked and Dinamo Kirov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Jul 2028
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
A brace, and Vojtěch Hranoš takes the afternoon — 8.73
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vojtěch Hranoš provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Artem Tarasov, 20, 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 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market31 Jul 2028
Kirill Butsev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Filip Chadała has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Irkutsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces31 Jul 2028
He is 22 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.
Match29 Jul 2028
Irkutsk settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Rotor 2 spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Jul 2028
Artem Karasev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Artem Karasev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Irkutsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Marek Jaroň 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.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
The numbers do not look good at Irkutsk
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.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kuban have kept their man, and Irkutsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kamil Kaczówka, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Dinamo Bryansk have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
Dawid Keller asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Jul 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market17 Jul 2028
Baltika come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Irkutsk did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Jul 2028
Artem Tarasov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
4 academy graduates step up at Irkutsk
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Irkutsk asked and Khimik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match15 Jul 2028
Metallurg left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market17 Jul 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Aleksandr Novikov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Jul 2028
“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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Irkutsk asked and Nizhniy Novgorod said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Yaroslav Voronkov 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.
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
106% of the income goes out in wages at Irkutsk
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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Irkutsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Irkutsk have made the call to Amkar. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dmitry Ikovanyuk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market10 Jul 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Irkutsk, another week without a signature from Przemysław Zakrzewski.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
It is arithmetic now, and the arithmetic is done. A summer of hard questions starts early at Irkutsk, and next season's fixture list reads very differently.
Market3 Jul 2028
Filip Chadała hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 Jul 2028
The name of Vojtěch Hranoš has come up in conversations Irkutsk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dawid Keller and Irkutsk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Przemysław Zakrzewski, and the manager let it.
Market3 Jul 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
A loan enquiry to PSK Pervorechenskoe: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom26 Jun 2028
Pressure builds in the Irkutsk boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market26 Jun 2028
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Artem Karasev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Irkutsk is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
The deal with Dinamo Vladivostok 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Artem Karasev 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.
Boardroom26 Jun 2028
The numbers do not look good at Irkutsk
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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Yaroslav Voronkov 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 dugout26 Jun 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Jun 2028
Irkutsk say no — this time
The offer from Rotor for Vojtěch Hranoš 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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Everything agreed with Dinamo St Petersburg, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Yaroslav Voronkov 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 dugout19 Jun 2028
“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 dugout19 Jun 2028
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.
Market19 Jun 2028
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Irkutsk money.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market19 Jun 2028
Marek Jaroň linked with a move away
The name of Marek Jaroň keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Irkutsk say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Jun 2028
Irkutsk sink to position 6
18 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad12 Jun 2028
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
Dinamo Barnaul will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Noel Hermansson has pre-agreed a move to Irkutsk, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad12 Jun 2028
36 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
Wages swallow 115% of the Irkutsk income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Market12 Jun 2028
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.
Market12 Jun 2028
He is 18, and nobody at Irkutsk signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad12 Jun 2028
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Irkutsk are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market12 Jun 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Filip Chadała’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jun 2028
“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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Irkutsk have had the benefit of it.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Dawid Keller
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Voronkov 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.
Market5 Jun 2028
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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Artūrs Karašausks has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Market5 Jun 2028
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 May 2028
38 days out for Viktor Gusev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Irkutsk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom29 May 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Irkutsk
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Irkutsk is running low.
Market29 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout29 May 2028
This is not rotation. Artem Karasev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Irkutsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad29 May 2028
Marek Jaroň 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.
Boardroom29 May 2028
Irkutsk counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Irkutsk now.
Squad29 May 2028
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.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Voronkov 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 dugout29 May 2028
Dawid Keller knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Irkutsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 May 2028
A fracture rules Viktor Gusev out for 45 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Irkutsk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market22 May 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Irkutsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market22 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 May 2028
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Molodnyakov 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 dugout22 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Kamil Kaczówka
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout22 May 2028
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 Przemysław Zakrzewski is on it.
Squad22 May 2028
“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 Irkutsk will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Market22 May 2028
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Irkutsk money.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 May 2028
Irkutsk are in real trouble now
Position 6, 18 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market15 May 2028
“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.
Squad15 May 2028
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom15 May 2028
Wages swallow 130% of the Irkutsk income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Squad15 May 2028
Danila Molodnyakov 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.
Squad15 May 2028
“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; Irkutsk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 May 2028
5 new faces, and Irkutsk are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout15 May 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Irkutsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market15 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vojtěch Hranoš’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom8 May 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Grigory Safonov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market8 May 2028
“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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Artem Karasev 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Yaroslav Voronkov 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.
Squad8 May 2028
“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; Irkutsk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout8 May 2028
The manager's exit leaves Rouben Nguyen exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Rouben Nguyen is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugout8 May 2028
Dmitry Ikovanyuk asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market8 May 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Irkutsk, another week without a signature from Przemysław Zakrzewski.
The dugout8 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Oleg Bulatnikov'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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom1 May 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Irkutsk
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The dugout1 May 2028
This is not rotation. Artem Karasev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Irkutsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad1 May 2028
Marek Jaroň 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.
Boardroom1 May 2028
Belts tighten at Irkutsk
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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Molodnyakov 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 dugout1 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Przemysław Zakrzewski, and the manager let it.
Market1 May 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Irkutsk, another week without a signature from Dmitry Ikovanyuk.
The dugout1 May 2028
Rouben Nguyen without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Rouben Nguyen was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Squad1 May 2028
“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 Irkutsk will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Apr 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Irkutsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market24 Apr 2028
“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
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Molodnyakov 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 dugout24 Apr 2028
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 dugout24 Apr 2028
Kamil Kaczówka knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kamil Kaczówka trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market24 Apr 2028
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Irkutsk money.
Market24 Apr 2028
Marek Jaroň linked with a move away
The name of Marek Jaroň keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Irkutsk say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad24 Apr 2028
The penny has dropped for Nazar Makeev
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Irkutsk the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Apr 2028
Every point is an argument now for Irkutsk
Position 6 and 18 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.
Market17 Apr 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Danila Molodnyakov 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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
108% of the income goes out in wages at Irkutsk
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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Irkutsk are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Market17 Apr 2028
Irkutsk bring in an old head
Sergey Zuikov is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Kamil Kaczówka asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market17 Apr 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vojtěch Hranoš’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Apr 2028
“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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Molodnyakov 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.
Market10 Apr 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Oleg Bulatnikov'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.
Market10 Apr 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Filip Chadała signs something — a contract at Irkutsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Irkutsk will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Irkutsk says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Apr 2028
Filip Chadała hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Irkutsk
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Irkutsk is running low.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
This is not rotation. Artem Karasev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Irkutsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Timur Yakovlev commits to Irkutsk for another 4 years.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Marek Jaroň 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.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Belts tighten at Irkutsk
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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danila Molodnyakov 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Viktor Gusev slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Viktor Gusev is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Market3 Apr 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Irkutsk, another week without a signature from Dmitry Ikovanyuk.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Mar 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Irkutsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Viktor Gusev 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 dugout27 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Przemysław Zakrzewski, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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 Przemysław Zakrzewski is on it.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“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 Irkutsk will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Irkutsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market27 Mar 2028
Marek Jaroň linked with a move away
The name of Marek Jaroň keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Irkutsk say nothing, which says plenty.
Market27 Mar 2028
The clock does Dmitry Ikovanyuk’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Irkutsk could ask drops and the wages Dmitry Ikovanyuk can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Mar 2028
Irkutsk are in real trouble now
Position 6, 18 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Artem Karasev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Everybody at Irkutsk saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viktor Gusev 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.
Boardroom20 Mar 2028
Wages eat 113% of everything Irkutsk earn
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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
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.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“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 dugout20 Mar 2028
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market20 Mar 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vojtěch Hranoš’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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 Mar 2028
A move Aly Tagiev would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Aly Tagiev is living that version at Irkutsk, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Molodnyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market13 Mar 2028
Zacharias Durup is 19, and Irkutsk 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.
Market13 Mar 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Mar 2028
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Irkutsk
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Irkutsk is running low.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Artem Karasev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Irkutsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marek Jaroň and Irkutsk agree another 4 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Marek Jaroň 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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Irkutsk counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Irkutsk now.
Transfer targets6 Mar 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viktor Gusev 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 dugout6 Mar 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Feb 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Irkutsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market28 Feb 2028
“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.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Window shuts: 2 in, 3 out at Irkutsk
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets28 Feb 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Viktor Gusev 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 dugout28 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleg Bulatnikov, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Feb 2028
The formation has left Nazar Makeev behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Irkutsk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
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 Przemysław Zakrzewski is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Feb 2028
Every point is an argument now for Irkutsk
Position 6 and 18 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.
Market21 Feb 2028
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A move Kirill Kiryanin would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kirill Kiryanin is living that version at Irkutsk, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ufa have kept their man, and Irkutsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Molodnyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom21 Feb 2028
Wages swallow 99% of the Irkutsk income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
Irkutsk have made the call to Spartak Kostroma. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Feb 2028
“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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chernomorets have kept their man, and Irkutsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Viktor Gusev 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 dugout14 Feb 2028
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.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artur Sekerin, and the manager let it.
Market14 Feb 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market14 Feb 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Filip Chadała signs something — a contract at Irkutsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Feb 2028
Filip Chadała hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Pressure builds in the Irkutsk boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Mikhail Sentyurin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Irkutsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Marek Jaroň was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The numbers do not look good at Irkutsk
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.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KAMAZ have kept their man, and Irkutsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viktor Gusev 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.
Market7 Feb 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
A loan move for Ivan Shmakov is in the works
Irkutsk have made the call to Shinnik. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Jan 2028
“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.
Market31 Jan 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Irkutsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
The deal with Mashuk 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Irkutsk asked and Spartak Kostroma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Danila Molodnyakov 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 dugout31 Jan 2028
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 Przemysław Zakrzewski is on it.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Irkutsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Jan 2028
Every point is an argument now for Irkutsk
Position 6 and 18 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.
Market24 Jan 2028
“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 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Viktor Gusev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
120% of the income goes out in wages at Irkutsk
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 Jan 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Irkutsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market24 Jan 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Irkutsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“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.
Market24 Jan 2028
6 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Irkutsk money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Jan 2028
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Viktor Gusev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Oleg Bulatnikov'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.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artur Sekerin, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Jan 2028
“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 Irkutsk will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Marek Jaroň 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.
Boardroom10 Jan 2028
Irkutsk counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Irkutsk now.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Molodnyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“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 Jan 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Irkutsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“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 Irkutsk will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Mark Kaptinar 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.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Kamil Kaczówka knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Irkutsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Jan 2028
“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.
Market3 Jan 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Irkutsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Jan 2028
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Irkutsk had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Danila Molodnyakov has agreed terms with Kaluga for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Marek Jaroň 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Viktor Gusev 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 dugout3 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Przemysław Zakrzewski, and the manager let it.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
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 Przemysław Zakrzewski is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match27 Dec 2027
Every point is an argument now for Irkutsk
Position 6 and 18 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.
Market27 Dec 2027
“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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viktor Gusev 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.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
134% of the income goes out in wages at Irkutsk
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 dugout27 Dec 2027
“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 dugout27 Dec 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Danila Molodnyakov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market27 Dec 2027
The name of Rouben Nguyen keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Irkutsk say nothing, which says plenty.
Market27 Dec 2027
Irkutsk have made Artem Karasev available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Molodnyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
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.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Dawid Keller asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market20 Dec 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vojtěch Hranoš’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market13 Dec 2027
Filip Chadała hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom13 Dec 2027
Belts tighten at Irkutsk
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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Viktor Gusev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market13 Dec 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Irkutsk, another week without a signature from Artūrs Karašausks.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
Dawid Keller asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
Mark Kaptinar 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.
Market13 Dec 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Irkutsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market13 Dec 2027
The clock does Danila Molodnyakov’s negotiating for him
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Irkutsk could ask drops and the wages Danila Molodnyakov can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Dec 2027
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Irkutsk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Marek Jaroň 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Viktor Gusev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market6 Dec 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Irkutsk, another week without a signature from Dmitry Ikovanyuk.
Squad6 Dec 2027
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Daniil Kalmykov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
Artem Karasev knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Irkutsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
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 dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Narek Poghosyan
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Nov 2027
Every point is an argument now for Irkutsk
Position 6 and 18 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.
Market29 Nov 2027
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
Wages eat 151% of everything Irkutsk earn
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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Ivan Ovsyankin 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 dugout29 Nov 2027
“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 dugout29 Nov 2027
Artem Karasev knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artem Karasev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market29 Nov 2027
The name of Rouben Nguyen keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Irkutsk say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Nov 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irkutsk can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“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 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Viktor Gusev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Nov 2027
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom15 Nov 2027
Irkutsk counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Irkutsk now.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Irkutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viktor Gusev 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 dugout15 Nov 2027
“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 dugout15 Nov 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Irkutsk told Viktor Gusev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Filip Chadała asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“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 Irkutsk will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad15 Nov 2027
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 Irkutsk would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Marek Jaroň 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 Nov 2027
Danila Molodnyakov 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 dugout8 Nov 2027
“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 Nov 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Irkutsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
Nobody at Irkutsk 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“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 Irkutsk will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
Mark Kaptinar 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.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match1 Nov 2027
Every point is an argument now for Irkutsk
Position 6 and 18 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.
Market1 Nov 2027
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match1 Nov 2027
Full time on the season at Irkutsk
Position 6 on 18 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Viktor Gusev 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 dugout1 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dawid Keller, and the manager let it.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
131% of the income goes out in wages at Irkutsk
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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
23 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Oct 2027
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Artem Karasev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Viktor Gusev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match23 Oct 2027
0‑1 to Rodina 2, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Viktor Gusev, and the manager let it.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“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.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Artūrs Karašausks will call it something else in private.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Oleg Bulatnikov 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
One booking too many, and Rouben Nguyen sits out. Irkutsk lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Oct 2027
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Irkutsk scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom18 Oct 2027
The numbers do not look good at Irkutsk
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.
Match16 Oct 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Irkutsk. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Match16 Oct 2027
Three points for Irkutsk, 1‑0 the final word against Pobeda in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Karasev, and the manager let it.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Ninety minutes of Marek Jaroň at his very best
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Irkutsk.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Molodnyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Grigory Safonov could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2027
Marek Jaroň 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Viktor Gusev 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 dugout11 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
8 new faces, and Irkutsk are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Artem Karasev asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Mark Kaptinar 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.
Market11 Oct 2027
The name of Filip Chadała keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Irkutsk say nothing, which says plenty.
Match11 Oct 2027
Continental football is in reach for Irkutsk
14 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Market11 Oct 2027
Irkutsk have let the market know Mikhail Sentyurin can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Marek Jaroň beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Viktor Gusev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad4 Oct 2027
51 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match2 Oct 2027
0‑1 to Dinamo St Petersburg, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filip Chadała, and the manager let it.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
130% of the income goes out in wages at Irkutsk
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
The medical room confirms 21 days on the sidelines for Vladislav Guzhvin, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
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 0‑1 Grigory Safonov left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Irkutsk
Marek Jaroň and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match25 Sep 2027
A 1‑0 win over Dinamo Kirov, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Irkutsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Molodnyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“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; Irkutsk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Marked 7.67 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Irkutsk had the best player on the pitch.
Market27 Sep 2027
A stepping stone, not a home, for Yegor Skichko
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Irkutsk were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
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.” Grigory Safonov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match18 Sep 2027
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Irkutsk rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Amkar had no answer to any of it.
Market20 Sep 2027
“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 Irkutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
A brace, and Marek Jaroň takes the afternoon — 8.13
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marek Jaroň provided it, and the 8.13 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.04, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match18 Sep 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Timur Yakovlev. 4‑3 against Amkar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Marek Jaroň in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Irkutsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom20 Sep 2027
The numbers do not look good at Irkutsk
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.
Transfer targets20 Sep 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Everybody at Irkutsk saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
A brace, and Vojtěch Hranoš takes the afternoon — 8.75
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vojtěch Hranoš provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market13 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
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.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“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.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Irkutsk close the window on a squad of their own making
22 in and 12 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Irkutsk
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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Marek Jaroň was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fakel have kept their man, and Irkutsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.