The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neftekhimik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Spartak Moscow paid $200.0K and Neftekhimik took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Ferro Carril Oeste 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.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Neftekhimik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
11 seasons and 365 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Evgeny Tatarinov 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 Feb 2027
Words at Neftekhimik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Kakhidze 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Evgeny Tatarinov, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Rodion Lisitsin chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Rotor defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
11 seasons and 364 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Torpedo Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neftekhimik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HNK Rijeka have kept their man, and Neftekhimik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: AS Trencin have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Timofey Kashintsev. The answer from Neftekhimik has not changed — yet.
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
Transfer targetsA loan move for Matija Popović is in the works
Transfer targetsA loan move for Lucas Gaona is in the works
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Saulo
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Marked 8.07 — 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.
1 for Eduard Valiakhmetov, marked 7.87, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neftekhimik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Saulo.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Neftekhimik told Marat Sitdikov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Kakhidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The offer from NK Krka for Timofey Kashintsev 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.
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 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The division's best last weekend was a Neftekhimik man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Islam Mashukov was the best thing in any of them.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Neftekhimik can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Position 17 and 16 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.
Marat Sitdikov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout4 Jan 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.” Rodion Lisitsin, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Marat Sitdikov 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
193% of the income goes out in wages at Neftekhimik
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.
7 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.
Evgeny Tatarinov 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.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Neftekhimik dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Kakhidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Rodion Lisitsin to a room that had heard them before.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
1 for Magomed Musalov, marked 7.59, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Soslan Takulov 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Rodion Lisitsin to a room that had heard them before.
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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Position 17 and 12 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.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neftekhimik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 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.
The mood at Neftekhimik has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Marat Sitdikov 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
187% of the income goes out in wages at Neftekhimik
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.
“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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Rodion Lisitsin to a room that had heard them before.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neftekhimik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The goal that put Shinnik ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Neftekhimik equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Half the programme played, position 16, 11 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Kakhidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Rodion Lisitsin left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Shinnik next, and one man in the Neftekhimik dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
22 goals in 14 games at Amkar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Neftekhimik updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Marat Sitdikov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sofian Bouzian, and the manager let it.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Neftekhimik dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Rodion Lisitsin left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Vladislav Levin'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 mood at Neftekhimik has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rashid Magomedov provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Neftekhimik
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rashid Magomedov. 2‑0 against Chernomorets, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 8 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Soslan Takulov 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Rodion Lisitsin after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Neftekhimik told Rashid Magomedov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Soslan Takulov 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.
13 goals in 11 games at Amkar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Neftekhimik updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Kakhidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Marat Sitdikov 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.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Artem Ismagilov: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Marat Sitdikov 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
He is 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neftekhimik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Arsenal Tula left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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 Rodion Lisitsin left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stanislav Puzanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Rodion Lisitsin after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Vladislav Levin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Neftekhimik needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
0‑3 to KAMAZ, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Neftekhimik close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 0 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Neftekhimik will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nueva Chicago have kept their man, and Neftekhimik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neftekhimik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nikita Vasiljev, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.98
A mark of 7.98 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Neftekhimik had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Almirante Brown, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Neftekhimik asked and Temperley said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 19 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Soslan Takulov 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.
Neftekhimik have made the call to Almirante Brown. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Tristán Suárez 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.
“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 Neftekhimik will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“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 dugout31 Aug 2026
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.” Rodion Lisitsin chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
$200.0K was the most the club would pay and Rubin were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Neftekhimik asked and River Plate said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Neftekhimik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Kakhidze is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Neftekhimik will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Rodion Lisitsin after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saulo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
1‑4 to Rodina, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Neftekhimik had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Radnicki Nis, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The offer went to Rubin this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Marat Sitdikov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Neftekhimik dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Panathinaikos 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Neftekhimik training over how hard people work
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Vladislav Levin has, at Neftekhimik, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neftekhimik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bogdan Kiselyov 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Viktor Kalinovsky 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Timofey Gribov 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Grigory Gorbachev 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Neftekhimik will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marat Sitdikov and Neftekhimik agree another 2 years.
Marat Sitdikov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. San Miguel have kept their man, and Neftekhimik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Neftekhimik, another week without a signature from Andrey Golubev.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Rodion Lisitsin to a room that had heard them before.