From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Shinnik's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shinnik has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces23 Aug 2027
The mood at Shinnik 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.
Match21 Aug 2027
Chastening afternoon for Shinnik
A 0‑3 beating by Ural was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
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Market23 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shinnik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Rodina keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market23 Aug 2027
Shinnik say no — this time
The offer from Rodina M for Kirill Tolstoy 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 targets23 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with Zenit, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Shinnik's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shinnik has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Kirill Tolstoy out for 29 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shinnik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market16 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Shinnik have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout16 Aug 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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Arsenal Tula; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market16 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Shinnik have gone to Spartak Moscow with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Match14 Aug 2027
2‑3 to Torpedo Moscow, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Shinnik asked and Torpedo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Aug 2027
The wait goes on for Shinnik
9 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.
Market9 Aug 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Shinnik have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Yenisey keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Danil Ladokha 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 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Shinnik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleg Lanin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets9 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market2 Aug 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.
Match31 Jul 2027
8 matches without a win for Shinnik
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Shinnik are no longer polite ones.
Market2 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Shinnik have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Spartak Moscow; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market2 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad2 Aug 2027
309 appearances across 9 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Shinnik know what they have.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
$200.0K on the table at Arsenal Tula. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Shinnik
Valente Pierani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces26 Jul 2027
Anger at Shinnik spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market26 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market26 Jul 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Pavel Kuznetsov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Match24 Jul 2027
No end in sight to Shinnik's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shinnik has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
No thanks: Daniil Lukin rejects the move
Shinnik had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Spartak Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market26 Jul 2027
Kirill Tolstoy has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shinnik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Shinnik
Kirill Malyarov 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.
Match24 Jul 2027
Spartak Kostroma left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
Gavriil Chekhov damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Nosta had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.76, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Shinnik may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match17 Jul 2027
No end in sight to Shinnik's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shinnik has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
$190.0K settles it between the clubs for Ilja Sokolov
Arsenal Tula have accepted the money. What Shinnik do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market19 Jul 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.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
4 academy graduates step up at Shinnik
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.
Market19 Jul 2027
The name of Daniil Martovoy has come up in conversations Shinnik were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gavriil Chekhov
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shinnik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Jul 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 Shinnik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market12 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rodina M waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shinnik is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Yenisey; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market12 Jul 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shinnik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market12 Jul 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Shinnik have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Nikolay Edjibia arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nikolay Edjibia has, at Shinnik, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets12 Jul 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Oleg Lanin 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
Crisis
Squad5 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gavriil Chekhov
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shinnik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Jul 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Shinnik people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Sergey Nikolayev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Crisis meeting at Shinnik
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market5 Jul 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 Shinnik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Denis Mironov is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A move Albert Naniev 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. Albert Naniev is living that version at Shinnik, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
No thanks: Mateo Peralta rejects the move
Shinnik had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lanús, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
$120.0K on the table at Dinamo Moscow. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Jun 2027
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shinnik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces28 Jun 2027
The mood at Shinnik 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.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Danil Ladokha: 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.” Shinnik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market28 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Shinnik people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Artem Lavrenkov is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Shinnik asked and Crvena 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.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Azat Bairyev
“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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
A loan move for Valente Pierani is in the works
Shinnik have made the call to River Plate. 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
Crisis
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Shinnik
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Shinnik is running low.
Squad21 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gavriil Chekhov
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shinnik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market21 Jun 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zvezda waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shinnik is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market21 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Shinnik
Danil Ladokha 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Shinnik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleg Lanin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets21 Jun 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.
The dugout21 Jun 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Artem Golubev: 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.” Shinnik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market14 Jun 2027
Denis Vambolt 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 Shinnik can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Artem Golubev pulls a muscle — 16 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Shinnik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleg Lanin 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 dugout14 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Denis Mironov
“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 dugout14 Jun 2027
Artur Cherny 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dmitry Samoilov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Sergey Nikolayev has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Shinnik can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Crisis meeting at Shinnik
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market7 Jun 2027
Artem Golubev has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shinnik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Vadim Karpov 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 dugout7 Jun 2027
Denis Mironov 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 Denis Mironov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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 dugout7 Jun 2027
The manager's exit leaves Gavriil Chekhov exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Gavriil Chekhov is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Market7 Jun 2027
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Shinnik could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 May 2027
Dmitry Samoilov damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
The terraces31 May 2027
The mood at Shinnik 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.
The dugout31 May 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout31 May 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.
Squad31 May 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 Shinnik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
A row about effort at Shinnik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleg Lanin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 May 2027
Dmitry Samoilov damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Boardroom24 May 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Shinnik
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market24 May 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.
Market24 May 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shinnik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 May 2027
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Denis Dyachkov
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Shinnik will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad24 May 2027
Artur Galoyan 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.
Squad24 May 2027
A row about effort at Shinnik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleg Lanin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 May 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 dugout24 May 2027
Evgeni Dzyuba 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
Crisis
Squad17 May 2027
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shinnik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market17 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shinnik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 May 2027
21 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad17 May 2027
Words exchanged at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan 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 dugout17 May 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.
Boardroom17 May 2027
93% of the income goes out in wages at Shinnik
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.
Market17 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dmitry Samoilov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout17 May 2027
Ilja Porokhov 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 Ilja Porokhov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout17 May 2027
Nikita Kotin has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Nikita Kotin has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 May 2027
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shinnik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market10 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Artem Golubev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Golubev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shinnik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 May 2027
Oleg Lanin 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 dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Azat Bairyev
“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 dugout10 May 2027
Danil Ladokha 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 Danil Ladokha trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market10 May 2027
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Shinnik money.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 May 2027
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shinnik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom3 May 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Sergey Nikolayev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The terraces3 May 2027
The mood at Shinnik 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.
Boardroom3 May 2027
Crisis meeting at Shinnik
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The dugout3 May 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad3 May 2027
Yaroslav Arbuzov 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 May 2027
Words at Shinnik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleg Lanin 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.
Market3 May 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Danila Yanov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Shinnik.
Market3 May 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmitry Samoilov
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shinnik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Shinnik
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Shinnik is running low.
Market26 Apr 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.
Market26 Apr 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniil Martovoy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shinnik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Artur Galoyan 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
Artem Golubev 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager makes Danil Ladokha a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Shinnik. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Yegor Baburin has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Shinnik that is a harder question to answer.
Market26 Apr 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Shinnik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Apr 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shinnik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Apr 2027
50 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Artur Galoyan 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Shinnik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleg Lanin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Artur Cherny 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.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
93% of the income goes out in wages at Shinnik
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.
Squad19 Apr 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 Shinnik will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Artem Golubev 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 Golubev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market19 Apr 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Shinnik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Apr 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shinnik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Apr 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 Shinnik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Shinnik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleg Lanin 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 dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artemy Kosogorov, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Artur Cherny 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 Artur Cherny trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 Apr 2027
The clock does Artemy Kosogorov’s negotiating for him
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Shinnik could ask drops and the wages Artemy Kosogorov can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Apr 2027
Viktor Dyachkov damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
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.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad5 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Ilja Porokhov
“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 dugout5 Apr 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Shinnik, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market5 Apr 2027
“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 dugout5 Apr 2027
Gavriil Chekhov without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Gavriil Chekhov was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Shinnik will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
In brief
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Boardroom
The Shinnik dressing room answers
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Squad
Questions about Platon Isakov on the training pitch
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Viktor Dyachkov
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shinnik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Shinnik
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Shinnik is running low.
Market29 Mar 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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Denis Vambolt: 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.” Shinnik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market29 Mar 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shinnik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Shinnik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleg Lanin 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 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danil Ladokha, and the manager let it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Yegor Baburin has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Shinnik that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Mar 2027
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shinnik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market22 Mar 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shinnik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Shinnik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleg Lanin 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 Mar 2027
Azat Bairyev 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
Wages eat 93% of everything Shinnik 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.
Market22 Mar 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Shinnik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Viktor Dyachkov
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shinnik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Azat Bairyev: 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.” Shinnik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market15 Mar 2027
Only the photograph left for Artem Golubev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Golubev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shinnik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Yaroslav Arbuzov 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.
Market15 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rostislav Kotov 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Shinnik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Golubev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Mar 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.
Market15 Mar 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Shinnik, another week without a signature from Yegor Baburin.
Market15 Mar 2027
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Shinnik money.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Mar 2027
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shinnik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad8 Mar 2027
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Sergey Nikolayev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match6 Mar 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Chelyabinsk, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match6 Mar 2027
The wait goes on for Shinnik
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market8 Mar 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Zvezda moved on, Pavel Kuznetsov reports back to Shinnik, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yegor Baburin commits to Shinnik for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Mar 2027
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shinnik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Pressure builds in the Shinnik boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market1 Mar 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.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Vadim Karpov: 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.” Shinnik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Shinnik close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 1 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.
Market1 Mar 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market1 Mar 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pavel Kuznetsov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shinnik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match27 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Shinnik's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shinnik has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Feb 2027
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shinnik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market22 Feb 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Shinnik have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market22 Feb 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Artur Galoyan 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 targets22 Feb 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Artem Golubev 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.
Market22 Feb 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Artemy Kosogorov has his answer from Shinnik; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
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Boardroom
111% of the income goes out in wages at Shinnik
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The dugout
No place for Azat Bairyev on the big day
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Feb 2027
Shinnik sell their best player to Akron
$3.1M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Squad15 Feb 2027
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shinnik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match13 Feb 2027
Ural punish Shinnik for switching off
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Yaroslav Arbuzov will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Shinnik escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Market15 Feb 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Shinnik people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market15 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artemy Kosogorov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shinnik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
Supporters turn on the $3.1M sale of Albek Gongapshev
He is going to Akron, the club has $3.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market15 Feb 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 Shinnik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Feb 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 Shinnik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match13 Feb 2027
Yaroslav Arbuzov scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑4 to Ural, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Viktor Dyachkov
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shinnik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Sergey Nikolayev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market8 Feb 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Artem Golubev had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market8 Feb 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 Shinnik can pretend not to have heard.
Market8 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Everything agreed with Rodina, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Trencin have kept their man, and Shinnik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shinnik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Shinnik
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market1 Feb 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 Shinnik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Torpedo Vladimir had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan 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 targets1 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and Shinnik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
He is 23 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Albek Gongapshev. 1‑0 against KAMAZ, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
Viktor Dyachkov damages knee ligaments — 90 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
Market25 Jan 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 Shinnik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Jan 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Shinnik
Danil Ladokha 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
Volga left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout25 Jan 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.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
109% of the income goes out in wages at Shinnik
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 dugout25 Jan 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sergey Nikolayev after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout25 Jan 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
Crisis
Squad18 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Viktor Dyachkov
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shinnik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout18 Jan 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.
Squad18 Jan 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 Shinnik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Azat Bairyev 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Artem Golubev 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Shinnik hit back inside 3 minutes
SKA Khabarovsk held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Shinnik answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The dugout18 Jan 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 2‑3 Sergey Nikolayev left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Viktor Dyachkov damages knee ligaments — 104 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 104 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 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Shinnik have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market11 Jan 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shinnik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout11 Jan 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match9 Jan 2027
Chernomorets made Shinnik work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market11 Jan 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Grigory Chizhov 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Grigory Drozdov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Marked 8.47 — 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
Crisis
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Sergey Nikolayev has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Shinnik can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Pressure builds in the Shinnik boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market4 Jan 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 Shinnik can pretend not to have heard.
Market4 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Spartak Myjava have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Danil Ladokha. The answer from Shinnik has not changed — yet.
Market4 Jan 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shinnik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Shinnik come up short against Ufa
Ufa left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout4 Jan 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Artur Galoyan 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
Wages eat 155% of everything Shinnik 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Shinnik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Golubev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout28 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Sergey Nikolayev to a room that had heard them before.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Dec 2026
2 behind and going nowhere, until Denis Mironov decided otherwise. Rotor had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Squad21 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shinnik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Dec 2026
It finished 3‑2, and it was Denis Mironov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Shinnik.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Denis Mironov 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 ratings21 Dec 2026
Denis Mironov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.60. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Azat Bairyev, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Shinnik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Golubev 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Sergey Nikolayev could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Dec 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shinnik can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Dec 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shinnik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom14 Dec 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Artemy Kosogorov has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Albek Gongapshev at his very best
Marked 8.69. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Shinnik.
Market14 Dec 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rostislav Myasnikov 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Viktor Dyachkov 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Shinnik rescue it on 95 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 95. Fakel had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Dec 2026
“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 Shinnik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Pressure builds in the Shinnik boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Shinnik
Yaroslav Arbuzov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Dec 2026
Arsenal Tula left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Artem Golubev 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Carlos Alberto 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.
The dugout7 Dec 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 Sergey Nikolayev left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Shinnik told Artur Cherny something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces30 Nov 2026
The mood at Shinnik 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Artur Galoyan 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Sokol made Shinnik work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 152% of the Shinnik 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.35, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Shinnik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Golubev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“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 Shinnik will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Nov 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shinnik can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shinnik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Nov 2026
Neftekhimik left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
Everything rides on Sokol
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Shinnik know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match23 Nov 2026
Shinnik at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 16, 12 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Nov 2026
It had gone 15 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Carlos Alberto: 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.” Shinnik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match14 Nov 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Yaroslav Arbuzov scored in the 88th minute, Spartak Kostroma had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Shinnik took the lot.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Azat Bairyev
“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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yaroslav Arbuzov. 1‑0 against Spartak Kostroma, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Artem Golubev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 7.95. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Shinnik's wait for a win
15 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shinnik has to find a result from somewhere.
Market9 Nov 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shinnik can pretend not to have heard.
Match9 Nov 2026
Shinnik sink to position 16
9 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Yegor Baburin
“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.
Market9 Nov 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Viktor Lapin 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Radomir Shevtsov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Artem Golubev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Shinnik
14 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
The mood at Shinnik 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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shinnik can pretend not to have heard.
Match31 Oct 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Shinnik
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 152% of the Shinnik 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Shinnik against Yenisey
0‑2 to Yenisey, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Danil Ladokha
“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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Shinnik's wait for a win
13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shinnik has to find a result from somewhere.
Market26 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shinnik can pretend not to have heard.
Match24 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Shinnik against Rodina
1‑2 to Rodina, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Carlos Alberto
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Artem Golubev 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Shinnik are still strangers to each other
11 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Danil Ladokha 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 Danil Ladokha trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Shinnik's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shinnik has to find a result from somewhere.
Match17 Oct 2026
Nowhere to hide for Shinnik
1‑5 against Ural, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Shinnik
Yaroslav Arbuzov 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Artur Galoyan among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Artur Galoyan on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Shinnik and Ural.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Artem Golubev 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 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artur Cherny, and the manager let it.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Shinnik 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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
Crisis
Match10 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Shinnik's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shinnik has to find a result from somewhere.
Market12 Oct 2026
“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.
Match12 Oct 2026
Shinnik sink to position 16
8 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
1‑3 to Torpedo Moscow, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
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.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Dmitri Denisov 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vitaliy Yershov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danila Yanov, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Denis Mironov at his very best
-
Market
No place for Artem Golubev in the plan
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
10 matches without a win for Shinnik
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Shinnik are no longer polite ones.
Match30 Sep 2026
Shinnik out of the cup
Amkar ended it 0‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market5 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shinnik can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
A cup embarrassment at Amkar follows Shinnik home
0-3. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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 Shinnik know it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Artur Galoyan 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
3 matches without a goal for Shinnik
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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 186% of the Shinnik 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Sep 2026
“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 Shinnik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match26 Sep 2026
8 matches without a win for Shinnik
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Shinnik are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shinnik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets28 Sep 2026
Shinnik asked and Lokomotiva Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match26 Sep 2026
Volga left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danil Ladokha, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and Shinnik 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Shinnik
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
No thanks: Marko Aščić rejects the move
Shinnik had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at HNK Rijeka, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
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 targets21 Sep 2026
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Carlos Alberto
“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.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with SKA Khabarovsk leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sergey Nikolayev after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Shinnik
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Shinnik 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The deal with HNK Rijeka 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Oleg Lanin 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 targets14 Sep 2026
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.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Semyon Pokrovsky 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Platon Isakov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Azat Bairyev, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Shinnik
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Shinnik are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Shinnik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleg Lanin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Shinnik asked and Guarani said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match5 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for Shinnik against Ufa
1‑2 to Ufa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yegor Baburin, and the manager let it.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Shinnik, another week without a signature from Yegor Baburin.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sergey Nikolayev after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A loan enquiry to Lokomotiva Zagreb: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
HNK Rijeka 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Daniil Kornyushin, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Shinnik
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Shinnik are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Shinnik
Danil Ladokha and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Radnicki Nis have kept their man, and Shinnik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jefferson Araújo, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 7.76. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Shinnik
11 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Shinnik have made the call to Sogdiana. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Racing Club 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
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Match
Honours even between Shinnik and Chaika
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Azat Bairyev knocks on the manager's door
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Central Espanol keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Veles have kept their man, and Shinnik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.75. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Match22 Aug 2026
It needed Albek Gongapshev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Rotor, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
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 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Shinnik did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Roman Denisov 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. Roman Denisov is living that version at Shinnik, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market17 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done: Roman Denisov joins from KDV Tomsk in a deal worth $190.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Shinnik
Artur Galoyan 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 targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Textilschik have kept their man, and Shinnik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match15 Aug 2026
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Shinnik had all but put away. Fakel will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Shinnik, another week without a signature from Danil Ladokha.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 7.87. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Rudar Velenje have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Denis Mironov. The answer from Shinnik has not changed — yet.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Denis Mironov commits to Shinnik for another 4 years.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$190.0K on the table at KDV Tomsk. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shinnik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Khimik have kept their man, and Shinnik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match8 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kirill Tolstoy is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vyacheslav Korotkov 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.10, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Oleg Lanin commits to Shinnik for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Artur Galoyan 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 targets3 Aug 2026
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.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Mikhail Zabotkin has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Shinnik have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Denis Mironov 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Denis Mironov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Shinnik.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.