Yakovlev's captaincy saga overshadows Metallurg's new season

Alexei Shevchenko of Sport-Express has drawn a parallel between the Yegor Yakovlev-Andrei Razin dispute at Metallurg and the way the dressing room reacted when Yevgeni Kuznetsov left the club.

"I know that when Kuznetsov was leaving Metallurg, Tolchinsky and Yakovlev were in tears, because they were saying: 'Come on, he's been focused on you, now he'll be on us. Don't go.' Well, now it's Yakovlev. And Yakovlev is the target that existed before, before Kuznetsov," Shevchenko said.

Metallurg named Yakovlev captain for the new season on 2 September. The defender has since missed the club's first two matches of the 2026/27 regular championship.

Sport-Express colleague Mikhail Zislis noted that the captaincy saga began with Nikita Provolnev being handed the armband, before the squad voted and picked Yakovlev instead, who then found himself out of the side. "I've never understood what there is to find fault with in Yegor Yakovlev," Zislis said, adding that the club goes into the season carrying that background.

Former forward Alexei Potapov suggested some coaches manufacture internal conflict deliberately. "It drags on for a long time if you look at how serious the situation appears, but on the other hand the team is playing, and it's possible this conflict is actually doing everyone some good," Potapov said. Zislis put it more bluntly, asking whether Yakovlev has become a scapegoat.