From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Nov 2027
Ilya Lebedev has one foot out of the door
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.
Market8 Nov 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
28 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Nov 2027
Slonim sink to position 11
22 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Amit Kornfine: 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.” Slonim have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Wages eat 185% 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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
The Slonim debt reaches $4.3M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad1 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Zack Henry
“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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Slonim have to sell first
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Oct 2027
Ilya Lebedev has one foot out of the door
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
56 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mitch Apau and Slonim agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Slonim's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Slonim has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom30 Aug 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
30 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad30 Aug 2027
The medical room confirms 74 days on the sidelines for Archie Taylor, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad30 Aug 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.
Market30 Aug 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Slonim will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match28 Aug 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk will be the happier side with the point.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A first senior shirt for James Ward
Every debut is a small story about the future: James Ward, 19 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
Market30 Aug 2027
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Slonim money.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Aug 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
58 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match31 Jul 2027
4 matches without a win for Slonim
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Slonim are no longer polite ones.
Squad2 Aug 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Slonim will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Hamidou Ba 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 Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Jun 2027
Lokomotiv Gomel made Slonim work for it, but the scoreboard read 2-1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad7 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Alexandr Konev
“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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Slonim have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Squad7 Jun 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 Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Viktor Berg wants a proper job in this side
Shifted about, taken off before the hour, asked to do somebody else's running — Viktor Berg has had enough of being useful and would like to be picked. Slonim know, and have known for weeks.
Market7 Jun 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slonim know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Alexandr Chizh
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Hamidou Ba asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Match10 Apr 2027
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Ostrovets came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Mar 2027
8 matches without a win for Slonim
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Slonim are no longer polite ones.
Market22 Mar 2027
Haruki Saruta hands in a written request
“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.
Match20 Mar 2027
Beaten 1-2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
Wages eat 291% 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.
Squad22 Mar 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.
Squad22 Mar 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 Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Mar 2027
6 matches without a win for Slonim
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Slonim are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
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.
Market8 Mar 2027
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market8 Mar 2027
The shirt still fits. Sergei Signevich is back at Slonim, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market8 Mar 2027
The shirt still fits. Uladzislau Filipenko is back at Slonim, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Feb 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.
Squad15 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bogdan Krasilov commits to Slonim for another 3 years.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Somebody is after Viktor Berg’s shirt
A new face in his position, and Viktor Berg suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Slonim have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Market15 Feb 2027
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Bogdan Krasilov arrives at Slonim with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Market15 Feb 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad19 Oct 2026
45 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody is after Viktor Berg’s shirt
A new face in his position, and Viktor Berg suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Slonim have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Roman Mushulov has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A welcome sight on the training pitch: Marat Kalinchenko has come through recovery and is pushing for a place again.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Match29 Aug 2026
5 matches without a win for Slonim
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Slonim are no longer polite ones.
Match29 Aug 2026
Dnepr Mogilev left with the points after a 1-2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 Aug 2026
23 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.