From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Nov 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Textilschik, and it could have been more.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.27, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Volgar
Vyacheslav Krotov 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 Nov 2026
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Mikhail Strelnik
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Volgar will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Match7 Nov 2026
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Textilschik tried to reorganise, Volgar did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Dmitry Lesnikov takes the afternoon — 8.93
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dmitry Lesnikov provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Volgar
Vyacheslav Krotov 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Dmitry Lesnikov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Volgar.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 519% of the Volgar 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
Ilja Zuev 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Kirill Kolesnichenko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Danil Poluboyarinov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Danil Poluboyarinov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Volgar have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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.” Artem Preobrazhensky kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Dmitry Lesnikov has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market26 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Volgar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Volgar
Vyacheslav Krotov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Oleg Dmitriev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Hugo Parra
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad26 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Volgar are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Match24 Oct 2026
It needed Oleg Dmitriev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Leningradets, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Alexey Pavlishin is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Oct 2026
At last: Volgar win one
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Alania. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Match17 Oct 2026
Volgar get the job done against Alania
A 1‑0 win over Alania, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Dmitry Lesnikov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Artem Preobrazhensky could afford to be generous.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mikhail Strelnik, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
A test against the best for Volgar
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Leningradets.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The plan did not have a place for Ilja Zuev
Nobody at Volgar is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Volgar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Volgar
Vyacheslav Krotov 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
A promise honoured at Volgar
Something was said to Ilja Zuev and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Market12 Oct 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Volgar has been clear about where Vladislav Yampolskiy stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Mikhail Strelnik has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Volgar 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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Alania next, and one man in the Volgar dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Hugo Parra 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 Hugo Parra trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
The goals keep arriving from Danil Goryaev’s exile
3 goals in 8 games at Astrakhan — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Volgar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Market12 Oct 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Vsevolod Yermakov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Sep 2026
The cup run ends for Volgar
0‑2 against Orenburg, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad5 Oct 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Volgar
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Volgar
Vyacheslav Krotov 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 Oct 2026
Wages eat 706% of everything Volgar 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match5 Oct 2026
The half-term report on Volgar
Position 8, 9 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Danil Anosov makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
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Market
Mikhail Strelnik is free to find somewhere else
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Boardroom
Volgar counting the cost
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.74, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market28 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Artem Yuran
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Yuran will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Volgar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Volgar's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Volgar has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Volgar
Vyacheslav Krotov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Sep 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Volgar
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad28 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Volgar are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Dinamo Kirov leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexey Pavlishin's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
No hiding place for Artem Yuran
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The dugout
Yegor Proshkin asks for a word with the manager
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Sep 2026
Volgar are in real trouble now
Position 8, 7 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Volgar
Oleg Dmitriev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for Volgar against Veles
1‑2 to Veles, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Hugo Parra
“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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
4.39. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Dmitry Ivanov's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I want to play”: Hugo Parra 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Yegor Proshkin 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 Volgar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Sep 2026
Chastening afternoon for Volgar
A 0‑3 beating by Dinamo Moscow 2 was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market14 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Irkutsk waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Volgar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad14 Sep 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 13 in, 0 out at Volgar
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Volgar
Vyacheslav Krotov 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Doors closed at Volgar
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Artem Preobrazhensky left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Alexey Mamin
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Danil Anosov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Volgar will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Volgar
Vyacheslav Krotov 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Volgar counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Volgar now.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ilja Zuev moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Volgar than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The name of Danil Pelikh keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Volgar say nothing, which says plenty.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
Supporters make their feelings known about Danil Pelikh
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Volgar would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Next up on the road: Dinamo Moscow 2, position 7. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Oleg Dmitriev has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Volgar
Vyacheslav Krotov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Volgar against Tyumen
0‑2 to Tyumen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Ilja Zuev
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Volgar are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
4.75 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Mikhail Strelnik obliged against Kyzyltash. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Volgar.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.04, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Danil Anosov, 21, steals the show — 8.15
Marked 8.15 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.32 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Volgar — 7.73
1 for Artem Yuran, marked 7.73, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Match22 Aug 2026
Volgar make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Volgar have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for Volgar, 3‑1 the final word against Textilschik in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Alexey Pavlishin delivers — 7.48
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alexey Pavlishin scored, was marked 7.48, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Volgar
Vyacheslav Krotov 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Volgar get the job done against Sibir
A 1‑0 win over Sibir, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Artem Preobrazhensky, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Looking ahead17 Aug 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Textilschik in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Hugo Parra left out for tactical reasons at Volgar
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A season on the outside for Hugo Parra
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Volgar has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Played out of position, hooked on the hour, asked to be somebody he is not — the details vary and the mood does not. Volgar have a player doing his work under protest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Volgar
Vyacheslav Krotov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hugo Parra and Volgar agree another 4 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Radomir Gorshkov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Arseniy Kostin has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Miroslav Okulov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stepan Yelagin is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Artem Preobrazhensky left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
201 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Volgar know exactly what they have.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Oleg Dmitriev commits to Volgar for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Volgar
Oleg Dmitriev 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Volgar, another week without a signature from Oleg Dmitriev.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Danil Pelikh's contract
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Volgar are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Market3 Aug 2026
Dmitry Ivanov is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Volgar has been clear about where Dmitry Ivanov stands, which is more than many ever get.