From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout30 Apr 2029
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Ilja Klementjev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad30 Apr 2029
“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 Textilschik know it.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vojtěch Hranoš is on it.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikolay Shulzhevskiy, and the manager let it.
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From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Apr 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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 dugout23 Apr 2029
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom23 Apr 2029
Wages swallow 147% of the Textilschik 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Ilja Klementjev 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.
Boardroom23 Apr 2029
The borrowing at Textilschik reaches $7.1M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $7.1M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Victor Demjanov is on it.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Artem Dudarev knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Textilschik, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market23 Apr 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alexandr Morozov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Apr 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Textilschik
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market16 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Textilschik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
This is not rotation. Ilja Klementjev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad16 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Alexandr Ryabinkin falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad16 Apr 2029
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
Artem Dudarev 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 Dudarev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market16 Apr 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Evgeny Tatarinov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Apr 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andrey Yevdokimov
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Textilschik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Ryabinkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom9 Apr 2029
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
Ilja Klementjev 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.
Market9 Apr 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Textilschik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Match9 Apr 2029
Continental football is in reach for Textilschik
19 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Apr 2029
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Textilschik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
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.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
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 dugout2 Apr 2029
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Alexandr Morozov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
$294.9K of the owner's money at Textilschik
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilja Klementjev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vojtěch Hranoš is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Mar 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov damages knee ligaments — 46 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 46 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market26 Mar 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Alexandr Morozov 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Boardroom26 Mar 2029
149% of the income goes out in wages at Textilschik
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.
Boardroom26 Mar 2029
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
Something was said to Victor Demjanov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
Alexandr Morozov 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
Squad19 Mar 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov damages knee ligaments — 53 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 53 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom19 Mar 2029
Pressure builds in the Textilschik boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market19 Mar 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
Market19 Mar 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Textilschik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
This is not rotation. Ilja Klementjev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad19 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Textilschik are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market19 Mar 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Evgeny Tatarinov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Mar 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov damages knee ligaments — 61 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
A fracture rules Evgeny Tatarinov out for 14 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Textilschik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Mar 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Textilschik, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom12 Mar 2029
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Klementjev 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market12 Mar 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Textilschik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Mar 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andrey Yevdokimov
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Textilschik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Mar 2029
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.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Daniil Fadeev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Maxim Polyakov and Textilschik agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
$259.4K from the owner keeps Textilschik afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
Vojtěch Hranoš has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Textilschik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market5 Mar 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Feb 2029
76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Textilschik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market26 Feb 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Textilschik people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Window shuts: 0 in, 1 out at Textilschik
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Ryabinkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
171% of the income goes out in wages at Textilschik
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.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
The borrowing at Textilschik reaches $6.7M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $6.7M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Feb 2029
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Textilschik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad19 Feb 2029
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.
Boardroom19 Feb 2029
Pressure builds in the Textilschik boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market19 Feb 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
This is not rotation. Ilja Klementjev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad19 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Klementjev 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.
Market19 Feb 2029
Amkar are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Textilschik will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniil Maltsev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Feb 2029
90 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Textilschik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad12 Feb 2029
A fracture rules Evgeny Tatarinov out for 43 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Textilschik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Andrey Yevdokimov is on it.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
Something was said to Makar Lipatov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Feb 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andrey Yevdokimov
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Textilschik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Feb 2029
50 days out for Evgeny Tatarinov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Textilschik will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
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.
Market5 Feb 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cherepovets waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Market5 Feb 2029
Makar Lipatov 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 Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
Market5 Feb 2029
Only the photograph left for Daniil Maltsev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniil Maltsev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Textilschik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
The owner puts $265.2K into Textilschik
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Jan 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andrey Yevdokimov
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Textilschik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Jan 2029
A fracture rules Evgeny Tatarinov out for 58 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Textilschik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market29 Jan 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
Wages swallow 187% of the Textilschik 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Klementjev 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.
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Jan 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov damages knee ligaments — 111 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 111 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.
Boardroom22 Jan 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Textilschik
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Textilschik is running low.
Market22 Jan 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yaroslav Makarenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Textilschik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. Ilja Klementjev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Andrei Glushakov 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 dugout22 Jan 2029
Vojtěch Hranoš 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.
Market22 Jan 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Ryabinkin signs something — a contract at Textilschik or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market22 Jan 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Artem Dudarev may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Jan 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Textilschik, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Boardroom15 Jan 2029
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Textilschik is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Textilschik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
Artem Dudarev 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.
Market15 Jan 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Textilschik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
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 dugout8 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Market8 Jan 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Textilschik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
$269.2K of the owner's money at Textilschik
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilja Klementjev 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 dugout8 Jan 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
Victor Demjanov loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Victor Demjanov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
Dmitry Usov knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Textilschik, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Jan 2029
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Textilschik had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
204% of the income goes out in wages at Textilschik
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Dmitry Usov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
Victor Demjanov loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Victor Demjanov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Daniil Maslov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Textilschik
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market25 Dec 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market25 Dec 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Textilschik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
This is not rotation. Ilja Klementjev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad25 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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.
Market25 Dec 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Ryabinkin signs something — a contract at Textilschik or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Dec 2028
17 days out for Maxim Polyakov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Textilschik will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Boardroom18 Dec 2028
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Ilja Klementjev 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 dugout18 Dec 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market18 Dec 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Textilschik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market18 Dec 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Dec 2028
A fracture rules Maxim Polyakov out for 24 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Textilschik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Market11 Dec 2028
Only the photograph left for Daniil Maltsev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniil Maltsev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Textilschik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Alexandr Ryabinkin falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market11 Dec 2028
The name of Evgeny Tatarinov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Textilschik say nothing, which says plenty.
Match11 Dec 2028
Textilschik have something to play for
Position 4 on 19 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Dec 2028
A fracture rules Maxim Polyakov out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Textilschik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
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 dugout4 Dec 2028
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Evgeny Steshin and Textilschik agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
$274.9K of the owner's money at Textilschik
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Ryabinkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
Wages swallow 269% of the Textilschik 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Ilja Klementjev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Nov 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Textilschik
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Textilschik is running low.
Market27 Nov 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Textilschik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
This is not rotation. Ilja Klementjev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad27 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Ilja Klementjev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Vojtěch Hranoš 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 Vojtěch Hranoš trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market27 Nov 2028
The name of Ilja Klementjev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Textilschik say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Nov 2028
A fracture rules Maxim Polyakov out for 45 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Textilschik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Boardroom20 Nov 2028
No signings allowed at Textilschik
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Dmitry Usov
“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.
Market20 Nov 2028
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Textilschik has been clear about where Frederik Jakobsen stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market20 Nov 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Textilschik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Nov 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Market13 Nov 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Textilschik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin 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 dugout13 Nov 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vojtěch Hranoš is on it.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
Dmitry Usov 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 Dmitry Usov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market13 Nov 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Textilschik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Match13 Nov 2028
Textilschik in the hunt for Europe
Position 4, 19 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Nov 2028
59 days out for Maxim Polyakov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Textilschik will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
Daniil Fadeev has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Textilschik can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
$262.8K of the owner's money at Textilschik
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
Wages eat 287% of everything Textilschik earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilja Klementjev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The Textilschik debt reaches $6.8M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Oct 2028
A fracture rules Maxim Polyakov out for 66 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Textilschik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match30 Oct 2028
Full time on the season at Textilschik
Position 4 on 19 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Textilschik
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Up for the corner, and Andrey Yevdokimov delivers — 7.89
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Andrey Yevdokimov scored, was marked 7.89, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market30 Oct 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Textilschik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
This is not rotation. Ilja Klementjev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad30 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Oct 2028
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Murom. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Oct 2028
73 days out for Maxim Polyakov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Textilschik will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match21 Oct 2028
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin 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 dugout23 Oct 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom23 Oct 2028
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Textilschik is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Oct 2028
80 days out for Maxim Polyakov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Textilschik will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Market16 Oct 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Textilschik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Ilja Klementjev 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 dugout16 Oct 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vojtěch Hranoš is on it.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Andrei Glushakov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market16 Oct 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Andrey Yevdokimov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Match16 Oct 2028
Continental football is in reach for Textilschik
16 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Oct 2028
87 days out for Maxim Polyakov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Textilschik will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match7 Oct 2028
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.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrey Yevdokimov and Textilschik agree another 4 years.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Boardroom9 Oct 2028
294% of the income goes out in wages at Textilschik
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 terraces9 Oct 2028
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Ninety minutes of Alexandr Morozov at his very best
Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Textilschik.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Sep 2028
Chastening afternoon for Textilschik
A 2‑5 beating by Kaluga was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Textilschik
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Textilschik is running low.
Market2 Oct 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Textilschik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market2 Oct 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Textilschik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match30 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Textilschik's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Textilschik has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
This is not rotation. Ilja Klementjev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrey Yevdokimov and Textilschik agree another 4 years.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
A hand in 2 of them from Vojtěch Hranoš — 7.97
Marked 7.97. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Squad2 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Sep 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Textilschik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Match23 Sep 2028
1‑2 to Volna, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom25 Sep 2028
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Seymur Məmmədov 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 dugout25 Sep 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniil Fadeev after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad25 Sep 2028
The formation has left Makar Pestov behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Textilschik will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Sep 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Textilschik have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market18 Sep 2028
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Akhmat Grozny moved on, Andrey Yevdokimov reports back to Textilschik, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Market18 Sep 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Market18 Sep 2028
Daniil Maltsev has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Textilschik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom18 Sep 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Daniil Maltsev 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Evgeny Steshin
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Textilschik will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 6.75, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Sep 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Textilschik have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The terraces11 Sep 2028
Supporters organise against the Textilschik board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match11 Sep 2028
Textilschik refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 15 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 12 gone
That is the business done at Textilschik 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Ryabinkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market11 Sep 2028
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
A brace, and Vojtěch Hranoš takes the afternoon — 8.68
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vojtěch Hranoš provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market4 Sep 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrey Yevdokimov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Textilschik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
This is not rotation. Ilja Klementjev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov ran the middle of the pitch — 7.55
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 14 combined actions and a mark of 7.55, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
$195.2K from the owner keeps Textilschik afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Wages swallow 243% of the Textilschik 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Seymur Məmmədov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Aug 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Textilschik have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market28 Aug 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Textilschik, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Match26 Aug 2028
Three points for Textilschik, 3‑1 the final word against Murom in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Ryabinkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces28 Aug 2028
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Looking ahead28 Aug 2028
The big one: Dinamo Kirov come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Textilschik will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
A performance of 8.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Aug 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Textilschik have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match16 Aug 2028
Salyut ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
13 combined actions and 6.36. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Market21 Aug 2028
The name of Yaroslav Makarenko has come up in conversations Textilschik were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match19 Aug 2028
0‑1 to Spartak Moscow 2, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces14 Aug 2028
Anger at Textilschik 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.
Match14 Aug 2028
12 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Evgeny Steshin, 36, rolls back the years — 7.93
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match12 Aug 2028
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad14 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Marked 6.99 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Market14 Aug 2028
A conversation is coming this week. Textilschik will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Aug 2028
3‑0, and Alexandr Morozov took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Textilschik tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market7 Aug 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Textilschik have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match5 Aug 2028
Nobody wants to play Textilschik right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Ilja Klementjev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
$185.5K from the owner keeps Textilschik afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
187% of the income goes out in wages at Textilschik
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.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Ninety minutes of Alexandr Morozov at his very best
Marked 8.51. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Textilschik.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Jul 2028
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Market31 Jul 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Textilschik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Ryabinkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match29 Jul 2028
Volna blown away early
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Volna tried to reorganise, Textilschik did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Squad31 Jul 2028
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Jul 2028
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
A brace, and Vojtěch Hranoš takes the afternoon — 8.58
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vojtěch Hranoš provided it, and the 8.58 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market24 Jul 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 7.14, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The terraces24 Jul 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Vojtěch Hranoš has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Ryabinkin, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Jul 2028
The mood at Textilschik 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.
Market17 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
Market17 Jul 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Textilschik people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Textilschik may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Textilschik
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Ryabinkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market17 Jul 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Valentin Zaytsev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Textilschik
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market10 Jul 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Textilschik, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Ilja Klementjev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
Wages swallow 170% of the Textilschik 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.
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
The Textilschik debt reaches $5.9M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Market10 Jul 2028
Metallurg are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Textilschik will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
It is arithmetic now, and the arithmetic is done. A summer of hard questions starts early at Textilschik, and next season's fixture list reads very differently.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
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.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The Textilschik board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market3 Jul 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The owner puts $253.3K into Textilschik
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Seymur Məmmədov 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 Jul 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Jun 2028
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market26 Jun 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Ryabinkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Textilschik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market26 Jun 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alexandr Ryabinkin’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market26 Jun 2028
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Textilschik could get for him.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
Martin Tauš 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
Uneasy
The terraces19 Jun 2028
The mood at Textilschik 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market19 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zvezda waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad19 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
No signings allowed at Textilschik
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
Something was said to Maxim Polyakov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Market19 Jun 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Evgeny Tatarinov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market19 Jun 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Evgeny Tatarinov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
Pressure builds in the Textilschik boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Ilja Klementjev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
Wages eat 165% of everything Textilschik 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Seymur Məmmədov 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 dugout12 Jun 2028
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 dugout12 Jun 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market12 Jun 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Polyakov signs something — a contract at Textilschik or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market12 Jun 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Andrey Yevdokimov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
Daniil Fadeev has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Textilschik can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
The Textilschik board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Market5 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yaroslav Makarenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Textilschik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
The owner puts $246.1K into Textilschik
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
The manager's exit leaves Roman Yermolin exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Roman Yermolin is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match29 May 2028
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
The dugout29 May 2028
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad29 May 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Squad29 May 2028
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The dugout29 May 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Textilschik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout29 May 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market29 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alexandr Ryabinkin’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad29 May 2028
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces22 May 2028
The mood at Textilschik 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 dugout22 May 2028
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad22 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom22 May 2028
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Seymur Məmmədov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout22 May 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Textilschik told Dmitry Ikovanyuk something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout22 May 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Textilschik, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market22 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Evgeny Tatarinov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout22 May 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nikolai Lebedev is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom15 May 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Textilschik
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Textilschik is running low.
The dugout15 May 2028
This is not rotation. Ilja Klementjev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad15 May 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Boardroom15 May 2028
186% of the income goes out in wages at Textilschik
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 dugout15 May 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vojtěch Hranoš is on it.
The dugout15 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrey Yevdokimov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market15 May 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market15 May 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Polyakov signs something — a contract at Textilschik or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom8 May 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Daniil Fadeev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom8 May 2028
The Textilschik board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The dugout8 May 2028
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Market8 May 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yaroslav Makarenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Textilschik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 May 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad8 May 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Evgeny Steshin and Textilschik agree another 2 years.
Boardroom8 May 2028
The owner puts $237.0K into Textilschik
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad8 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Ryabinkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 May 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Textilschik are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 May 2028
Textilschik are in real trouble now
Position 10, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
The dugout1 May 2028
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad1 May 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Seymur Məmmədov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout1 May 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout1 May 2028
Artiom Zabun without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Artiom Zabun was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Squad1 May 2028
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Textilschik has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Squad1 May 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
Market1 May 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Textilschik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces24 Apr 2028
The mood at Textilschik 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 dugout24 Apr 2028
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad24 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Ryabinkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom24 Apr 2028
No signings allowed at Textilschik
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Market24 Apr 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Ryabinkin signs something — a contract at Textilschik or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Nikolai Lebedev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Textilschik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market24 Apr 2028
Textilschik have let the market know Alexandr Morozov can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Alexandr Ryabinkin’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Textilschik
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Textilschik is running low.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
This is not rotation. Ilja Klementjev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Alexandr Ryabinkin falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
Wages swallow 184% of the Textilschik 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.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Textilschik told Roman Yermolin something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Vojtěch Hranoš has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Textilschik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market17 Apr 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Textilschik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alik Hovhannisyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout10 Apr 2028
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Market10 Apr 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Textilschik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Seymur Məmmədov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom10 Apr 2028
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Market10 Apr 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Martin Tauš has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Textilschik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Dmitry Ikovanyuk asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market10 Apr 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Maxim Polyakov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Apr 2028
Every point is an argument now for Textilschik
Position 10 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad3 Apr 2028
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Textilschik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Daniil Fadeev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The Textilschik board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The owner puts $228.0K into Textilschik
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin 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 Apr 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ilja Klementjev has his answer from Textilschik; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces27 Mar 2028
Anger at Textilschik 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Textilschik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market27 Mar 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad27 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Boardroom27 Mar 2028
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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 dugout27 Mar 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom20 Mar 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Textilschik
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Brite Ihuomah damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Ilja Klementjev has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom20 Mar 2028
Wages swallow 186% of the Textilschik 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Seymur Məmmədov 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 dugout20 Mar 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vojtěch Hranoš is on it.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
Martin Tauš 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
Uneasy
Squad13 Mar 2028
Brite Ihuomah damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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 dugout13 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Market13 Mar 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Textilschik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Market13 Mar 2028
Maxim Polyakov is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Textilschik has been clear about where Maxim Polyakov stands, which is more than many ever get.
Boardroom13 Mar 2028
The borrowing at Textilschik reaches $5.7M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $5.7M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Martin Tauš gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Martin Tauš is on it.
Market13 Mar 2028
The name of Evgeny Tatarinov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Textilschik say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Mar 2028
Every point is an argument now for Textilschik
Position 10 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad6 Mar 2028
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Textilschik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Daniil Fadeev has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Textilschik can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The Textilschik board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The owner puts $218.3K into Textilschik
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Ryabinkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces28 Feb 2028
Supporters organise against the Textilschik board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Brite Ihuomah damages knee ligaments — 52 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Feb 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Textilschik people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market28 Feb 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Textilschik 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom21 Feb 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Textilschik
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad21 Feb 2028
29 days out for Ilja Klementjev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Textilschik will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market21 Feb 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Dmitry Usov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Evgeny Tatarinov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Boardroom21 Feb 2028
Wages swallow 173% of the Textilschik 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“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 Textilschik know it.
Market21 Feb 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Textilschik will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Feb 2028
36 days out for Ilja Klementjev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Textilschik will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market14 Feb 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Alexandr Ryabinkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad14 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Boardroom14 Feb 2028
The Textilschik debt reaches $5.6M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
Something was said to Vojtěch Hranoš and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
Martin Tauš gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Martin Tauš is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Feb 2028
Textilschik are in real trouble now
Position 10, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad7 Feb 2028
43 days out for Ilja Klementjev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Textilschik will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Daniil Fadeev has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Textilschik can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market7 Feb 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Textilschik, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Maxim Polyakov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
$169.4K from the owner keeps Textilschik afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Seymur Məmmədov 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 dugout7 Feb 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces31 Jan 2028
Anger at Textilschik 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Jan 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Textilschik people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Evgeny Tatarinov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrey Yevdokimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
No signings allowed at Textilschik
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ilja Klementjev is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Textilschik
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Textilschik is running low.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A fracture rules Ilja Klementjev out for 57 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Textilschik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Dmitry Usov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Evgeny Tatarinov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
Wages swallow 188% of the Textilschik 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.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
Vojtěch Hranoš has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Textilschik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dmitry Ikovanyuk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jan 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Seymur Məmmədov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom17 Jan 2028
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Maxim Boichenko 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 dugout17 Jan 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Dmitry Ikovanyuk asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Jan 2028
Every point is an argument now for Textilschik
Position 10 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A fracture rules Ilja Klementjev out for 72 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Textilschik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yaroslav Makarenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Textilschik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Evgeny Tatarinov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov 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 Jan 2028
Andrey Yevdokimov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Textilschik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market10 Jan 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Textilschik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Vitaly Zhokhov knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Textilschik, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market10 Jan 2028
Textilschik have made Maxim Polyakov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces3 Jan 2028
The mood at Textilschik 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
79 days out for Ilja Klementjev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Textilschik will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
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 dugout3 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Evgeny Tatarinov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Seymur Məmmədov commits to Textilschik for another 4 years.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
$147.6K of the owner's money at Textilschik
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrey Yevdokimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
No signings allowed at Textilschik
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Textilschik
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Textilschik is running low.
Squad27 Dec 2027
86 days out for Ilja Klementjev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Textilschik will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
This is not rotation. Dmitry Usov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
Wages swallow 206% of the Textilschik 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Seymur Məmmədov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vojtěch Hranoš is on it.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Maxim Boichenko
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Dec 2027
94 days out for Ilja Klementjev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Textilschik will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Evgeny Tatarinov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Boardroom20 Dec 2027
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Maxim Polyakov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Textilschik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
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.
Market20 Dec 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Textilschik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 Dec 2027
Every point is an argument now for Textilschik
Position 10 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market13 Dec 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Textilschik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Evgeny Tatarinov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Textilschik can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Textilschik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Artiom Zabun
“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.
Boardroom13 Dec 2027
Textilschik can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
Market13 Dec 2027
The name of Maxim Polyakov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Textilschik say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces6 Dec 2027
Supporters organise against the Textilschik board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
Daniil Fadeev has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Textilschik can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match4 Dec 2027
Chastening afternoon for Textilschik
A 0‑3 beating by Chaika was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match6 Dec 2027
Full time on the season at Textilschik
Position 10 on 14 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
This is not rotation. Roman Yermolin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The owner puts $128.7K into Textilschik
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrey Yevdokimov, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Zhokhov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
-
Boardroom
Inquest at Textilschik
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
-
Squad
Martin Tauš makes the team of the month
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Textilschik
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Textilschik is running low.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
No sign of nerves from Alexandr Morozov at 21 — 7.79
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alexandr Morozov did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
This is not rotation. Dmitry Usov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Textilschik is pretending otherwise.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
Wages eat 274% of everything Textilschik earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Seymur Məmmədov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces29 Nov 2027
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match27 Nov 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Alexandr Morozov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Textilschik.
Squad29 Nov 2027
30 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Nov 2027
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Dmitry Usov ran the middle of the pitch — 7.04
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 15 combined actions and a mark of 7.04, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Evgeny Tatarinov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrey Yevdokimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match20 Nov 2027
1‑2 to Neftekhimik, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Looking ahead22 Nov 2027
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
Boardroom22 Nov 2027
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout22 Nov 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 1‑2 Daniil Fadeev left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Maxim Polyakov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 2027
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Textilschik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match15 Nov 2027
Every point is an argument now for Textilschik
Position 10 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market15 Nov 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yaroslav Makarenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Textilschik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Nov 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 Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
38 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Zhokhov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Vojtěch Hranoš has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Textilschik will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Boardroom15 Nov 2027
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
Market15 Nov 2027
The name of Maxim Polyakov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Textilschik say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces8 Nov 2027
Supporters organise against the Textilschik board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roman Yermolin
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Textilschik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Daniil Fadeev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Evgeny Tatarinov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
The owner puts $104.4K into Textilschik
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Match6 Nov 2027
Dinamo Moscow 2 left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
In brief
-
Squad
Alexandr Morozov is the division's best young player this month
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
The dugout
Andrey Yevdokimov has become a man the manager trusts
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Nov 2027
Roman Yermolin damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Pressure builds in the Textilschik boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad1 Nov 2027
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market1 Nov 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Nov 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 Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Wages eat 229% of everything Textilschik 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.
The terraces1 Nov 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 Oct 2027
Kaluga made Textilschik work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Oct 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces25 Oct 2027
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match23 Oct 2027
Three points for Textilschik, 1‑0 the final word against Veles in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad25 Oct 2027
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Vitaly Zhokhov 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.
Boardroom25 Oct 2027
The borrowing at Textilschik reaches $4.9M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $4.9M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
18 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Marked 7.58 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Textilschik had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Daniil Fadeev kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Oct 2027
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Textilschik may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market18 Oct 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Textilschik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Oct 2027
66 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Evgeny Tatarinov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
0‑1 to Volgar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Evgeny Tatarinov, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces11 Oct 2027
The mood at Textilschik 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Squad11 Oct 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 Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Textilschik are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Artiom Zabun 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 dugout11 Oct 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Boardroom11 Oct 2027
Textilschik can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Maxim Polyakov 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.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Volgar in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Textilschik
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
Daniil Fadeev has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Textilschik can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match2 Oct 2027
The drought breaks for Textilschik
13 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Mashuk were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Maxim Boichenko: 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.” Textilschik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Vojtěch Hranoš, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad4 Oct 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 Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Evgeny Steshin commits to Textilschik for another 2 years.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
The owner puts $70.9K into Textilschik
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match25 Sep 2027
13 matches without a win for Textilschik
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Textilschik are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 21 actions, 7.49, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Marked 7.71 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market27 Sep 2027
Makar Lipatov 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 Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Evgeny Tatarinov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrey Yevdokimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom27 Sep 2027
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Match25 Sep 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mykyta Tiniakov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Sep 2027
12 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.
Match20 Sep 2027
Every point is an argument now for Textilschik
Position 10 and 1 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market20 Sep 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yaroslav Makarenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Textilschik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Evgeny Tatarinov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Match18 Sep 2027
Chaika left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match20 Sep 2027
Half the programme played, position 10, 1 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 dugout20 Sep 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 dugout20 Sep 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniil Fadeev after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces13 Sep 2027
The mood at Textilschik 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
11 matches without a win for Textilschik
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Textilschik are no longer polite ones.
Market13 Sep 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 Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Textilschik 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
1‑2 to Dinamo Vladivostok, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Seymur Məmmədov 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 dugout13 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Sep 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 Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Pressure builds in the Textilschik boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad6 Sep 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 Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
$23.1K from the owner keeps Textilschik afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Yevdokimov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
Textilschik asked and Yenisey said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Wages swallow 234% of the Textilschik 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.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vitaly Zhokhov, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Nikolay Shulzhevskiy 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Textilschik's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Textilschik has to find a result from somewhere.
Market30 Aug 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 Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
Market30 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Textilschik people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Evgeny Tatarinov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Match28 Aug 2027
Neftekhimik left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
No signings allowed at Textilschik
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad30 Aug 2027
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
The Textilschik debt reaches $4.2M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
A promise honoured at Textilschik
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Stefan Kalinov is in the works
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Aug 2027
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.
Match23 Aug 2027
Textilschik are in real trouble now
Position 10, 1 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match18 Aug 2027
The small margins put Textilschik out
Out, 1‑3 to Orel, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market23 Aug 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 Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
Match21 Aug 2027
0‑1 to Dinamo Moscow 2, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Seymur Məmmədov 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Appearance number 100 for Dmitry Usov
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Maxim Boichenko 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 terraces16 Aug 2027
The mood at Textilschik 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.
Market16 Aug 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 Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
Match14 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Textilschik's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Textilschik has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Evgeny Tatarinov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match14 Aug 2027
Kaluga left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
The dugout16 Aug 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 dugout16 Aug 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Aug 2027
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The dugout9 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.
Squad9 Aug 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 Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 6.83, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Match7 Aug 2027
Veles left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
Wages swallow 148% of the Textilschik 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.
The dugout9 Aug 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Textilschik are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Jul 2027
5 matches without a win for Textilschik
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Textilschik are no longer polite ones.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match31 Jul 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Textilschik and Volgar, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match31 Jul 2027
2‑4 to Volgar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The owner puts $19.2K into Textilschik
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Seymur Məmmədov 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.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Jul 2027
0‑3 against Mashuk, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match24 Jul 2027
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad26 Jul 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 Textilschik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Ryabinkin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Morozov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniil Fadeev after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Maxim Polyakov is on it.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrey Yevdokimov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces19 Jul 2027
Supporters organise against the Textilschik board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market19 Jul 2027
Sibir come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Textilschik did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Textilschik may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market19 Jul 2027
The phone has started ringing about Denis Sabusov again, and this time the name on the line is Cherepovets. Textilschik are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Maxim Polyakov ran the middle of the pitch — 7.20
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 15 combined actions and a mark of 7.20, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
5 academy graduates step up at Textilschik
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.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Jul 2027
Dmitry Usov 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 Textilschik can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov 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.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
Wages swallow 158% of the Textilschik 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Seymur Məmmədov 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 Jul 2027
Martin Tauš 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 dugout12 Jul 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vojtěch Hranoš is on it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I want to play”: Martin Tauš speaks
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Market12 Jul 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Maxim Polyakov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
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 Alexandr Ryabinkin has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Jul 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
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
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nikolay Shulzhevskiy and Textilschik agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets5 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Seymur Məmmədov 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 dugout5 Jul 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Textilschik sign 3 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Jun 2027
Cherepovets come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Textilschik did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Evgeny Tatarinov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Textilschik asked and Dinamo Kirov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Alexandr Ryabinkin falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Boichenko, and the manager let it.
Market28 Jun 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Ryabinkin signs something — a contract at Textilschik or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Vitaly Zhokhov 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Textilschik would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 Jun 2027
Anger at Textilschik 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.
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Textilschik
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Textilschik is running low.
Match21 Jun 2027
Textilschik are in real trouble now
Position 8, 18 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market21 Jun 2027
The phone has started ringing about Denis Sabusov again, and this time the name on the line is Cherepovets. Textilschik are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Evgeny Tatarinov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Textilschik now.
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pobeda have kept their man, and Textilschik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Seymur Məmmədov 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
Squad14 Jun 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov 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
Alexandr Ryabinkin 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.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
163% of the income goes out in wages at Textilschik
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.
Market14 Jun 2027
Victor Demjanov is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Textilschik has been clear about where Victor Demjanov stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artiom Zabun, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout14 Jun 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 Textilschik, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market14 Jun 2027
The name of Evgeny Tatarinov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Textilschik say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Maxim Polyakov has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Daniil Fadeev has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Textilschik can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
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
Only the photograph left for Maxim Noskov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxim Noskov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Textilschik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Andrey Yevdokimov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Textilschik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Ryabinkin 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 dugout7 Jun 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ilja Klementjev is on it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
The captaincy has been taken off Artiom Zabun. Textilschik will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Artiom Zabun 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.