Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Arsenal Dzerzhinsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Zaleskiy 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, another week without a signature from Vladislav Vasilyuchek.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Nicolas Richter, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Denis Polyakov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Oreshkevich 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ilja Vasin 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.
“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.
The dugout18 Oct 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.” Mikita Klimovich, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volna Pinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaliy Kibuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Volna Pinsk, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Volna Pinsk will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“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 Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Denis Polyakov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Zaleskiy 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Vladislav Vasilyuchek will call it something else in private.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mikita Klimovich after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaliy Kibuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Dmitriy P. Denisenko had Volna Pinsk level again within 4 minutes, and Baranovichi never got to play with a lead at all.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Mark Mokin, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.81
A mark of 7.81 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
4 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.
Denis Polyakov 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Yan Shumskiy is in the works
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Artem Makavchik
Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Marked 7.74 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Stanislav Baluk 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Grisha Paronyan has his answer from Volna Pinsk; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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 Volna Pinsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Dinamo Brest, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk 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 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.
Dinamo Brest 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volna Pinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Minsk have kept their man, and Volna Pinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Dmitriy Matyash’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Volna Pinsk.
Boardroom19 Jul 2027
132% of the income goes out in wages at Volna Pinsk
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.
Dinamo Brest 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.
The dugout19 Jul 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.” Hleb Ihnatovich, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrey Zaleskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Mikita Klimovich left the room before anybody could ask which.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against BATE.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dmitriy Matyash provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Volna Pinsk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Stanislav Baluk did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volna Pinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Belshina have kept their man, and Volna Pinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Stanislav Baluk 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.
Dmitriy Matyash 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
Half the programme played, position 5, 22 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
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 dugout14 Jun 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Hleb Ihnatovich chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Volna Pinsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Yaroslav Oreshkevich 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Hleb Ihnatovich after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Volna Pinsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Baranovichi? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Lida next, and one man in the Volna Pinsk dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Position 2, 19 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Dmitriy Matyash 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
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.
The dugout24 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Hleb Ihnatovich to a room that had heard them before.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
1‑3 to Slonim, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
Marked 7.19 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Stanislav Letsko is on it.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Volna Pinsk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad3 May 2027
Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
Ivan Yakovlev 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Volna Pinsk, another week without a signature from Dmitriy P. Denisenko.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Azam Radzhabov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Vitaliy Kibuk is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Dmitriy Matyash 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Artem Kilyimanov is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Niva in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Yakovlev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Volna Pinsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Yaroslav Oreshkevich 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 Apr 2027
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
He is 23 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.
Three points for Volna Pinsk, 1‑0 the final word against Belshina in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Dmitriy Matyash was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dmitriy P. Denisenko’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Volna Pinsk needing him to play as if none of it matters.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dmitriy Matyash. 1‑0 against Lokomotiv Gomel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Hleb Ihnatovich on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
14 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The phone has started ringing about Vadim Tkachenko again, and this time the name on the line is Osipovichi. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk are listening politely and promising nothing.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Uni-X Labs have kept their man, and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Andrey Zaleskiy 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.
It involved Ivan Tolkachev, it was loud enough to reach the car park, and it was over by lunch. Dressing rooms run hot; the ones that should worry you are the silent ones.
Dinamo Minsk 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volna Pinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaliy Kibuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ernest Selskiy and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikolay Sotnikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 20, and nobody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Dmitriy Matyash 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 Dec 2026
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
Nikolay Sotnikov 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Sergey Sazonchik is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Astapenkov 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.
7 goals in 6 games at Volna Pinsk — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I did not go to Dnepr Mogilev to sit and watch. I want to come back to Arsenal Dzerzhinsk and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Danila Slesarchuk signs something — a contract at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Volna Pinsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volna Pinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Volna Pinsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I did not go to Dnepr Mogilev to sit and watch. I want to come back to Arsenal Dzerzhinsk and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
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.
7 goals in 6 games at Volna Pinsk — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Vitebsk in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Danila Slesarchuk signs something — a contract at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Arsenal Dzerzhinsk will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dmitriy Lutik trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Volna Pinsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Everybody at Volna Pinsk saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kirill Kovalevich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Volna Pinsk could ask drops and the wages Maxim Grechikha can ask rise.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Egor Nikoporenok has written the date down.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Azam Radzhabov plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Mikita Klimovich left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Yuriy Lovets's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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 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.
7 goals in 6 games at Volna Pinsk — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Yuriy Lovets will want back
Two goals and a mark of 8.58 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Volna Pinsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Kirill Polkhovskiy reports back to Volna Pinsk with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Anton Susha has agreed terms with Vitebsk for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Volna Pinsk and Lida in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Mark Mokin is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Andrey Zaleskiy has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, another week without a signature from Vladislav Vasilyuchek.
Ivan Oreshkevich 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mark Mokin has come out of that comparison in the side, and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Isloch in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Volna Pinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from Naftan for Kirill Polkhovskiy 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Volna Pinsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Volna Pinsk and Belshina, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The name of Daniil Tkachik has come up in conversations Volna Pinsk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Minsk have kept their man, and Volna Pinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Denis Polyakov 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.
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk asked and Dnepr Mogilev said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Slutsk next, and one man in the Arsenal Dzerzhinsk dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Artem Gurenko keeps the shirt for now, at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk's convenience rather than his own.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Vlasov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Volna Pinsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Artem Vlasov has agreed terms with Slutsk for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Vitaliy Kibuk 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.
9 combined actions and 6.39. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexey Stroychuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Volna Pinsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Stanislav Letsko 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dmitriy Matyash. 2‑1 against Lokomotiv Gomel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dmitriy P. Denisenko 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Grisha Paronyan has, at Volna Pinsk, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volna Pinsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Daniil Tkachik has come up in conversations Volna Pinsk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Grisha Paronyan and Volna Pinsk agree another 3 years.
Volna Pinsk asked and Paide said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Volna Pinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Susha 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Volna Pinsk, another week without a signature from Vitaliy Kibuk.