Marked for Sergey Pushnyakov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Neman is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Neman
Sergey Pushnyakov 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 Oct 2026
Words at Neman training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Gordeychuk 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Dominik Ťapaj is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market5 Oct 2026
Dmitriy Girs has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Neman they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 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 Neman this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Mikhail Gordeychuk 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Neman, another week without a signature from Mikhail Oparin.
Squad5 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and Neman 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Valentín Dávila at 19 — 7.74
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Valentín Dávila did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Néstor Canelón yet — 7.88
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market28 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Neman is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Neman
Sergey Pushnyakov 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Neman training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Gordeychuk 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 terraces28 Sep 2026
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.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Néstor Canelón’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Neman.
Squad28 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Anton Chichkan dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Neman
7 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.
Market21 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Anton Suchkov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Suchkov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Neman the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Anton Suchkov has agreed terms with BATE for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad21 Sep 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 Neman this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Mikhail Gordeychuk 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
4 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Neman they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 Neman, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Neman
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Neman are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Danu Spătaru 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Neman
Sergey Pushnyakov 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Neman training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Gordeychuk 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings31 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
Dominik Ťapaj decides it from twelve yards
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match19 Aug 2026
Neman bow out of the cup
Dnepr Mogilev go through and Neman go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Neman, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Mads Nielsen pops up at the right end — 7.76
7.76, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Market24 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Arsenal Dzerzhinsk have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kirill Veidyger. The answer from Neman has not changed — yet.
Market24 Aug 2026
Neman say no — this time
The offer from Uni-X Labs for Mateush Montevka 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Only the photograph left for Ilya Kirko
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilya Kirko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Neman the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Dmitriy Girs 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.
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 Neman this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 9 of the 40 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dmitry Radikovskiy did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Danil Ananka has agreed terms with Torpedo-BelAZ for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market17 Aug 2026
Only the photograph left for Danil Ananka
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danil Ananka will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Neman the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Neman
Sergey Pushnyakov 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Neman training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Gordeychuk 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Molodechno have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dmitriy Girs. The answer from Neman has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ruslan Radyukevich 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Neman did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Neman
Sergey Pushnyakov 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Neman training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Gordeychuk 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 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Neman know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Ilya Kirko pops up at the right end — 7.71
7.71, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Market3 Aug 2026
Naftan come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Neman did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mikhail Gordeychuk and Neman agree another 2 years.
Squad3 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 Neman this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Aug 2026
BATE made Neman work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑3 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match1 Aug 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Neman and BATE in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Anton Suchkov at his very best
Marked 9.54. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Neman.