Marked for Viktor Berg
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Oct 2027
“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.
Market18 Oct 2027
Only the photograph left for Vladimir Dziov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladimir Dziov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slonim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Slonim
Dmitriy Vechorko 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Mushulov 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
Alexandr Konev 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 Alexandr Konev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market18 Oct 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Egor Petrov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad18 Oct 2027
The training reports on Viktar Sivakov are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Oct 2027
Every point is an argument now for Slonim
Position 11 and 23 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market11 Oct 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market11 Oct 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slonim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Slonim
Dmitriy Vechorko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Chuyko 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Oct 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Slonim may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market4 Oct 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arseniy Zhukovskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slonim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
Pressure builds in the Slonim boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad4 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Viktor Berg and Slonim agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 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 Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Slonim
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Chuyko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
Wages swallow 116% of the Slonim 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Sep 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 Slonim, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad27 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Slonim
Dmitriy Vechorko 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.
Boardroom27 Sep 2027
Slonim counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Slonim now.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Mushulov 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 dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Viktor Berg
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Sep 2027
“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.
Market6 Sep 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slonim is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Slonim have done the hard part with Isloch, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad6 Sep 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 Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Roman Mushulov 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Wages eat 111% of everything Slonim 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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
A loan enquiry to BATE: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
A loan enquiry to Smorgon: 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
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
A brace, and Arseniy Zhukovskiy takes the afternoon — 8.83
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Arseniy Zhukovskiy provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market8 Mar 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arseniy Zhukovskiy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slonim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
The Slonim board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Viktor Berg and Slonim agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Slonim
Dmitriy Vechorko 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 terraces8 Mar 2027
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Dmitriy Sai 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.
Transfer targets8 Mar 2027
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Slonim will try again when the window opens; Vitebsk may not be selling by then.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$9.0K settles it between the clubs for Artur Dresmanis
Baranovichi have accepted the money. What Slonim do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Slonim
Dmitriy Vechorko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Slonim
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roman Mushulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Slonim who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Slonim 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
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
Slonim out of the cup
Vitebsk ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad17 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 Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Mushulov 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
When it matters, Dmitriy Sai plays
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 dugout17 Aug 2026
No place in the plan for Viktor Berg
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Looking ahead17 Aug 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nikita Chuyko’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Slonim needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.11, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Slonim
Dmitriy Vechorko 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Stanislau Chalavach 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
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Raman Nekhaichik is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Andrei Dragun is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yauhen Volodko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.61 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Dmitriy Sai
“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.
Match8 Aug 2026
A point taken on 96 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.