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 Zakhar Gitselev is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilya Chmut was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Naftan has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Naftan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Yamoussa Camara 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Naftan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Golden Mafwenta 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 goal that put Orsha ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Naftan equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout18 Oct 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 Hleb Laptev left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Golden Mafwenta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alexey Tkhagalegov 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.
“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; Naftan are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Naftan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Yamoussa Camara 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.
Naftan have gone to Gomel with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The offer went to Gomel this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Arseniy Galushko 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Zakhar Gitselev 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.
Egor Yuschenko, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.78
A mark of 7.78 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Zakhar Gitselev 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.
8.09. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arseniy Galushko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Naftan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Naftan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Yamoussa Camara 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Krivosheev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Arsenal Dzerzhinsk in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Naftan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naftan 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 Arseniy Galushko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Hleb Laptev after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Ilya Chmut 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artemiy Litvinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Naftan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Anatoliy Sannikov 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 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Naftan, another week without a signature from Zakhar Gitselev.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Hleb Laptev could afford to be generous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naftan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Hleb Laptev after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artemiy Litvinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zakhar Gitselev provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Naftan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Yamoussa Camara 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.
7 goals in one match, Zakhar Gitselev on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Naftan and Dnepr Mogilev.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Drabatovich, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Apr 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 3‑4 defeat, delivered by Hleb Laptev to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
SquadWords at Naftan training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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. Alexey Kharitonovich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Naftan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Naftan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Naftan moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Hleb Laptev, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
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.
Yamoussa Camara 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Zakhar Gitselev 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.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Naftan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Alexandr Naumovich reports back to Naftan with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Golden Mafwenta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Naftan have had the benefit of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arseniy Galushko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Naftan, another week without a signature from Zakhar Gitselev.
Nobody at Naftan 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Naftan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Alexandr Shvedchikov arrives at Naftan with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Naftan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vadim Yakovlev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Naftan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Yamoussa Camara is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Naftan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artemiy Litvinov 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.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Naftan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Naftan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naftan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
16 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Something was said to Ruslan Myalkovskiy and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Naftan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ruslan Myalkovskiy did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Artur Nazarenko scored, was marked 7.93, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vladislav Krolik is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Naftan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Yamoussa Camara 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Zakhar Gitselev 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.
Molodechno made Naftan work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Naftan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Krivosheev 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.
7.85, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vadim Yakovlev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Naftan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naftan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilya Seleznev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ruslan Myalkovskiy has come out of that comparison in the side, and Naftan have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Naftan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Yamoussa Camara 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trakai have kept their man, and Naftan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.82, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad28 Sep 2026
16 new faces, and Naftan are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Alexey Kharitonovich reports back to Naftan with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Shamil Gadjiev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.64
A mark of 7.64 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Naftan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Alexandr Alexandrovich has agreed terms with Molodechno for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Yamoussa Camara 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.
Naftan asked and Volga said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Zakhar Gitselev 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Shamil Gadjiev. 2‑0 against Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.72, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ruslan Myalkovskiy did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Add another name to the list: Torpedo-BelAZ have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alexey Kharitonovich. The answer from Naftan has not changed — yet.
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.
Naftan asked and Dinamo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Hleb Laptev after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matvey Susha did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 22 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.94, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Vadim Yakovlev at his very best