Marked for Ivan Novichkov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match20 Mar 2027
Gomel left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aliaksandr Malevich after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Vitebsk lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Mar 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Vitebsk have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Vitebsk close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market1 Mar 2027
Vitebsk say no — this time
The offer from Slonim for Vladislav Pulkach 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.
Market1 Mar 2027
The deal that would have taken Ivan Novichkov to Minsk has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Vitebsk with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Vitebsk know it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Vitebsk
Mikhail Bashilov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Semyon Yegorov commits to Vitebsk for another 3 years.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roman Lisovskiy, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
A promise honoured at Vitebsk
Something was said to Roman Lisovskiy and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Smorgon waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vitebsk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market22 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vitebsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Vitebsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Bashilov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Vitebsk
Roman Lisovskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market22 Feb 2027
The name of Vladislav Pulkach has come up in conversations Vitebsk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market22 Feb 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Vitebsk will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Roman Lisovskiy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vitebsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market15 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vitebsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Evgeniy Krasnov 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.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market15 Feb 2027
The name of Brian Leroy Onana has come up in conversations Vitebsk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Vitebsk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislav Shubovich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Alexandr Burnos
“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 dugout15 Feb 2027
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 dugout15 Feb 2027
“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
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vitebsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market25 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brian Leroy Onana will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vitebsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Vitebsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Bashilov 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
Radivoj Bosić 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.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
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 Brian Leroy Onana is on it.
Market25 Jan 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Vitebsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
Alexandr Anufriev damages knee ligaments — 57 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vitebsk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Jan 2027
53 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Mikhail Bashilov 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 dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Sten Reinkort
“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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Yevhen Protasov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
100 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vitebsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Vitebsk had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market30 Nov 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brian Leroy Onana will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vitebsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Mikhail Bashilov 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
Nikita Vekhtev 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 Vitebsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Oct 2026
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Vitebsk rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Neman had no answer to any of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The match ball belongs to Andrey Solovey, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Ivan Novichkov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vitebsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market5 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vitebsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match3 Oct 2026
It had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vitebsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 9.55 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match3 Oct 2026
Neman made Vitebsk work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match3 Oct 2026
Vitebsk leaking at the back
4 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.