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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislav Pulkach was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 The request is on a desk at Vitebsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mikhail Bashilov 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.
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.
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 Evgeniy Novykh is on it.
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.
“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.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Dnepr Mogilev the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Vitebsk will enjoy reviewing.
Mikhail Bashilov 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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Vitebsk did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Radivoj Bosić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
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.
“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 Vitebsk, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
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 Ivan Grudko is on 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 Vitebsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 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.
Next up on the road: Dnepr Mogilev, position 5. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
Vitebsk asked and Stal Mielec said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Vitebsk told Marin Žgomba something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nikita Bylinkin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Vitebsk needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Evgeniy Novykh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vitebsk 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 Vitebsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Yahor Shikavka after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Evgeniy Novykh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Devid Kokoev is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nobody at Vitebsk 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dinamo Brest waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vitebsk is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Smorgon for Nikita Vekhtev 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.
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.
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.
Slavia Prague 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 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.
“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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Vitebsk people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Mikhail Bashilov 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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
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.
Vitebsk have made the call to CSKA Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vitebsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mikhail Bashilov 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.
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 Evgeniy Krasnov is on 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 Vitebsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
A brace, and Marin Žgomba takes the afternoon — 7.69
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marin Žgomba provided it, and the 7.69 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Slutsk will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Vladislav Fedosov has pre-agreed a move to Vitebsk, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Alexandr Burnos 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.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Vitebsk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Volga can pretend not to have heard.
Vladislav Yakovlev 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. Kirill Folmer 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.
Volga asked and Rubin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
5 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Volga, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Volga have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Volga can pretend not to have heard.
Kirill Folmer 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 name of Evgeny Pshennikov has come up in conversations Volga were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Artur Murza 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Ufa scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Folmer 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 Volga, another week without a signature from Alexandr Saplinov.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Volga has been clear about where Devid Kokoev stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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.