Marked for Roman Babaev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
Market10 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Roman Babaev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roman Babaev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 May 2027
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.
Squad10 May 2027
Veniamin Kostyukovich 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.
Match8 May 2027
It needed Vladimir Popov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Ostrovets, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout10 May 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Yahor Bykau after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout10 May 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 Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad10 May 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Uni-X Labs will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout10 May 2027
Egor Snapkov 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
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 dugout3 May 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Uni-X Labs told Mikhail Alexandrov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Boardroom3 May 2027
91% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad3 May 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Matvey Svidinskiy
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Matvey Svidinskiy has come out of that comparison in the side, and Uni-X Labs have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout3 May 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 dugout3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roman Durko, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead3 May 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ostrovets in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market3 May 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad3 May 2027
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
No sign of nerves from Daniil Narchuk at 21 — 7.78
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Daniil Narchuk did not need any: 7.78, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Egor Snapkov: 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.” Uni-X Labs have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market12 Apr 2027
Only the photograph left for Roman Babaev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roman Babaev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad12 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Apr 2027
It finished 3‑1, and it was Mikhail Alexandrov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Uni-X Labs.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Khalimonchikov 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 terraces12 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniil Narchuk 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Khalimonchikov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matvey Svidinskiy, and the manager let it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Too much change too quickly at Uni-X Labs
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Mikhail Alexandrov, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Uni-X Labs would like this to lead.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Lokomotiv Gomel next, and one man in the Uni-X Labs dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market29 Mar 2027
Uni-X Labs have made Artur Kats available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market29 Mar 2027
The name of Vladimir Popov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Uni-X Labs say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 Mar 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match20 Mar 2027
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Mikhail Alexandrov scored in the 88th minute, Dnepr Mogilev had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Uni-X Labs took the lot.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Khalimonchikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces22 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Mikhail Alexandrov 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
A 1‑0 win over Dnepr Mogilev, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yaroslav Khramtsevich, and the manager let it.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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.” Yahor Bykau, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market15 Mar 2027
Roman Babaev has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Khramtsevich 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 Mar 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“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.
Market15 Mar 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Uni-X Labs, another week without a signature from Vladislav Fezhenko.
Looking ahead15 Mar 2027
Uni-X Labs take on the side everybody is chasing
Dnepr Mogilev arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Mar 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Fezhenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Uni-X Labs 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Artem Kuratnik 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 Mar 2027
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Khalimonchikov 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 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vladislav Fezhenko, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Uni-X Labs know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Squad1 Mar 2027
6 new faces, and Uni-X Labs 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.
Market1 Mar 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Looking ahead1 Mar 2027
Volna Pinsk next, and one man in the Uni-X Labs dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
Matvey Svidinskiy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torpedo-BelAZ have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Khramtsevich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yaroslav Khramtsevich, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
A loan move for Maxim Gaevoy is in the works
Uni-X Labs have made the call to Torpedo-BelAZ. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Minsk: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Vladimir Popov 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 Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market22 Feb 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vladimir Popov signs something — a contract at Uni-X Labs or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad22 Feb 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 Uni-X Labs would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Smorgon waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market15 Feb 2027
Roman Babaev has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to BATE; Uni-X Labs go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Boardroom15 Feb 2027
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Vladimir Popov 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 targets15 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. BATE have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Khalimonchikov 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 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Vladimir Popov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to Vitebsk: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Feb 2027
The offer from Bumprom Gomel for Roman Babaev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
$17.0K was the most the club would pay and Dinamo Brest were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Uni-X Labs asked and Minsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Uni-X Labs
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Khalimonchikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 Feb 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Michał Malinowski commits to Uni-X Labs for another 3 years.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
BATE have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Neman have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer from Smorgon for Vladislav Fezhenko was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Uni-X Labs have gone to Dinamo Brest with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Uni-X Labs asked and Dinamo Minsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout1 Feb 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Artur Kats slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Artur Kats is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Michał Malinowski and Uni-X Labs agree another 3 years.
Market1 Feb 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market1 Feb 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Khalimonchikov 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 dugout4 Jan 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.
Squad4 Jan 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Vladimir Popov 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 Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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. Yaroslav Khramtsevich has moved up it.
Market4 Jan 2027
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Artem Kuratnik arrives at Uni-X Labs with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Market4 Jan 2027
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Ivan Vorobjev leaves Uni-X Labs the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Uni-X Labs lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Egor Semenov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The decline has begun for Egor Semenov
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Uni-X Labs is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
129% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Bulynenok 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roman Durko, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑4 by Dnepr Mogilev, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match12 Aug 2026
Torpedo-BelAZ ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 8.05 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market17 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Egor Semenov in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Vladimir Popov 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Uni-X Labs dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A touch he did not mean and a goal that goes in the book with his name against it. Uni-X Labs will not blame him tonight and he will not need them to.