“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 The request is on a desk at Minsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Konstantin Malitskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Minsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Konstantin Malitskiy has agreed terms with Gomel for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Minsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Daouda Natama 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ezequiel Sánchez 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 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Roberto Siucho decided nobody was going anywhere. Isloch had no time left to answer.
“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 The request is on a desk at Minsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alexandr Gutor 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.
Slutsk will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Vladislav Chebotar has pre-agreed a move to Minsk, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
At 23 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Minsk can pretend not to have heard.
Alexandr Gutor 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 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Osipovichi will make the call about Ilya Bondarenko this week. Minsk have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
A brace, and Daouda Natama takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daouda Natama provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Minsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Dinamo Minsk will make the call about Pavel Tarletskiy this week. Minsk have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
48 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.
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.
316 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Alexandr Gutor 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 phone has started ringing about Pavel Tarletskiy again, and this time the name on the line is Dinamo Minsk. Minsk are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Daouda Natama 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.
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.
Still no offer on the table, and Konstantin Kuchinskiy’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.