Marked for Sergey Sazonchik
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Sep 2031
132 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout29 Sep 2031
“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.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Sergey Sazonchik 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.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Words at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dzambolat Tsallagov 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 Sep 2031
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.
The dugout29 Sep 2031
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 Mikhail Osipov is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market15 Sep 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets15 Sep 2031
The deal with Vllaznia Shkodër is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad15 Sep 2031
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.
Transfer targets15 Sep 2031
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk will try again when the window opens; Dinamo Brest may not be selling by then.
Transfer targets15 Sep 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Minsk have kept their man, and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislav Vasiljev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 Sep 2031
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.
The dugout15 Sep 2031
“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.
Market15 Sep 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Valeriy Gorbachik signs something — a contract at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces8 Sep 2031
The mood at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match8 Sep 2031
Position 2 and 46 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The dugout8 Sep 2031
“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.
Boardroom8 Sep 2031
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk 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.
Market8 Sep 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets8 Sep 2031
$610.0K on the table at Dinamo Brest. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Sergey Sazonchik 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.
Squad8 Sep 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ernest Selskiy and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets8 Sep 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match23 Aug 2031
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Sergey Sazonchik scored in the 86th minute, Slonim had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk took the lot.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2031
The clubs have shaken hands with Dinamo Brest; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Match23 Aug 2031
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad25 Aug 2031
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.
Player ratings25 Aug 2031
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2031
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.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislav Vasiljev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market25 Aug 2031
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match23 Aug 2031
A 1‑0 win over Slonim, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces11 Aug 2031
Supporters organise against the Arsenal Dzerzhinsk board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match11 Aug 2031
40 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk have done the hard part with AGF, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Sergey Sazonchik 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.
Match9 Aug 2031
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings11 Aug 2031
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vllaznia Shkodër have kept their man, and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dzambolat Tsallagov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Jul 2031
3 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.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Sergey Sazonchik and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings21 Jul 2031
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tirana have kept their man, and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislav Vasiljev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings21 Jul 2031
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
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 targets21 Jul 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings23 Jun 2031
Successful dribbles: 39. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Gleb Sereda breaks a bone — 29 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Jun 2031
A move Gleb Sereda would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gleb Sereda is living that version at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Minsk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad23 Jun 2031
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.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
Dinamo Minsk wanted more than $130.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torpedo-BelAZ have kept their man, and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislav Vasiljev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market23 Jun 2031
The name of Denis Zakharov has come up in conversations Arsenal Dzerzhinsk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings9 Jun 2031
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.92, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Dmitriy Matyash and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Words at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolay Sotnikov 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.
Match7 Jun 2031
A 2‑1 win over Baranovichi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings9 Jun 2031
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk told Nikolay Sotnikov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Goncalo Fonseca could afford to be generous.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
Mikhail Osipov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 May 2031
0‑2 against Slavia Mozyr, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Sergey Sazonchik and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings2 Jun 2031
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Words at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolay Sotnikov 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.
Match31 May 2031
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Match31 May 2031
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Osipovichi tried to reorganise, Arsenal Dzerzhinsk did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Player ratings2 Jun 2031
Marked 8.22 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings2 Jun 2031
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 May 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Valeriy Gorbachik
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout5 May 2031
“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.
Squad5 May 2031
Sergey Sazonchik and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 May 2031
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad5 May 2031
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.
Player ratings5 May 2031
Marked 7.78. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout5 May 2031
A promise honoured for Amady Gadio
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk told Amady Gadio something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad5 May 2031
A place in the month's best eleven for Amady Gadio
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Amady Gadio has come out of that comparison in the side, and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Apr 2031
Valeriy Gorbachik damages knee ligaments — 65 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
Player ratings14 Apr 2031
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Sergey Sazonchik 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 Apr 2031
Nikolay Sotnikov 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.
Squad14 Apr 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ilya Zaytsev commits to Arsenal Dzerzhinsk for another 2 years.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Market14 Apr 2031
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ilya Zaytsev has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk.
Match12 Apr 2031
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Orsha came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Mar 2031
Valeriy Gorbachik damages knee ligaments — 102 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 102 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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Sergey Sazonchik 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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Renat Nikiforov and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk agree another 4 years.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Words at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolay Sotnikov 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.
Looking ahead17 Mar 2031
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Maxim Aleksievich’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces24 Feb 2031
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom24 Feb 2031
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market24 Feb 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets24 Feb 2031
Everything agreed with Slavia Mozyr, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets24 Feb 2031
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Neman, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Sergey Sazonchik 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 Feb 2031
Words at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolay Sotnikov 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.
Market24 Feb 2031
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.
Squad24 Feb 2031
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces27 Jan 2031
The mood at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad27 Jan 2031
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad27 Jan 2031
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Arsenal Dzerzhinsk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Sergey Sazonchik 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.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Nikolay Sotnikov 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 dugout27 Jan 2031
“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 targets27 Jan 2031
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.
Transfer targets27 Jan 2031
A loan move for Alexey Zhechko is in the works
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk have made the call to Neman. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout27 Jan 2031
Renat Nikiforov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom6 Jan 2031
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Yan Balanovich clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Boardroom6 Jan 2031
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
Boardroom6 Jan 2031
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Market6 Jan 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Jan 2031
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.
Squad6 Jan 2031
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.
Boardroom6 Jan 2031
news_h_severance_paid
news_b_severance_paid
The dugout6 Jan 2031
A fresh start for Amady Gadio under the new man
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Amady Gadio has taken the hint, and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Dec 2030
28 days out for Mikhail Osipov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market9 Dec 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Dec 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yuriy Lovets and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Dec 2030
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.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Words at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dzambolat Tsallagov 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 dugout9 Dec 2030
“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.
Market9 Dec 2030
“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.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
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 Renat Nikiforov is on it.
Market9 Dec 2030
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk has been clear about where Maxim Mitskevich stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Nov 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad18 Nov 2030
Sergey Sazonchik and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Nov 2030
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.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
“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.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
The manager has not finished forgetting Ernest Selskiy'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 dugout18 Nov 2030
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 Sebastian Juliussen is on it.
Market18 Nov 2030
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk have let the market know Andrey Zaleskiy can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market18 Nov 2030
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Mikalai Kendysh leaves Arsenal Dzerzhinsk the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Sep 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal Dzerzhinsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Sergey Sazonchik and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Words at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolay Sotnikov 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
Daniel Volskiy has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk 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.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Aug 2030
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk and Neman have settled on $280.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The dugout12 Aug 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match10 Aug 2030
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Neman, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market12 Aug 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Aug 2030
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.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Jul 2030
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Arsenal Dzerzhinsk are no longer polite ones.
Squad29 Jul 2030
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.
The dugout29 Jul 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Minsk is saying, and nobody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk is enjoying the guessing.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Dmitriy Matyash and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
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.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Nikolay Sotnikov 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.
Match27 Jul 2030
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match27 Jul 2030
Two points walk out of the ground
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Arsenal Dzerzhinsk had all but put away. Dinamo Brest will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Jul 2030
19 days out for Ruslan Teverov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match6 Jul 2030
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Arsenal Dzerzhinsk are no longer polite ones.
Match6 Jul 2030
A 0‑3 beating by Dinamo Minsk was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market8 Jul 2030
“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.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
The deal with BATE is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at BATE is saying, and nobody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk is enjoying the guessing.
Market8 Jul 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikolay Andriyanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Arsenal Dzerzhinsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Minsk have kept their man, and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad8 Jul 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Mar 2030
127 days out for Ruslan Teverov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match23 Mar 2030
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.
Match23 Mar 2030
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad25 Mar 2030
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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Dzambolat Tsallagov 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.
Match23 Mar 2030
Dinamo Minsk left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
“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 dugout25 Mar 2030
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Feb 2030
Ruslan Teverov breaks a bone — 155 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 155 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout25 Feb 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Boardroom25 Feb 2030
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets25 Feb 2030
Everything agreed with Slavia Mozyr, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets25 Feb 2030
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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Dzambolat Tsallagov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Feb 2030
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.
Market25 Feb 2030
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout25 Feb 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout31 Dec 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad31 Dec 2029
Sergey Sazonchik and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dzambolat Tsallagov 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 dugout31 Dec 2029
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.
Market31 Dec 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ruslan Teverov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
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 Nikolay Andriyanov has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout3 Dec 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad3 Dec 2029
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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Vadim Tkachenko, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Pavel Klenje has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Arsenal Dzerzhinsk have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Words at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolay Sotnikov 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 dugout3 Dec 2029
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.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
A signature, a photograph, and a line in the accounts. Nobody sings about it and everything else on this page is paid for by it.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
Dmitriy Lutik 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 Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.