51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Slonim lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Rady Yamlikhanov 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Nikita Chuyko 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
143 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Slonim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 14, 12 points, and a crowd that arrives braced. Seasons are lost in exactly this atmosphere and everybody who has lived through one knows the sound of it.
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Slonim 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slonim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Uni-X Labs moved on, Denis Miskevich reports back to Slonim, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Slonim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Miskevich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slonim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Slonim asked and Slutsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Chuyko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Slonim have made the call to Torpedo-BelAZ. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
0‑3 to BATE, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Uni-X Labs waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slonim is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything agreed with Torpedo-BelAZ, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roman Mushulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Alexandr Konev will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Slonim escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“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 Slonim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alexandr Konev scored, was marked 7.48, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slonim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal with Neman 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.
Rady Yamlikhanov 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 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Chuyko 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Uni-X Labs waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slonim is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Slonim asked and Neman said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Chuyko 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aliaksandr Stasevich after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Slonim have made the call to Dinamo Minsk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slonim have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
14 combined actions and 6.97. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Brest have kept their man, and Slonim go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Nikita Chuyko 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slonim people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Slonim, and it is not being withdrawn.
2‑3 to Smorgon, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Mushulov 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitriy Vechorko, and the manager let it.
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 2‑3 Aliaksandr Stasevich left the room before anybody could ask which.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slonim is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roman Mushulov 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.” Aliaksandr Stasevich after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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.
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.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
10 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Miskevich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slonim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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, 7.08, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout10 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Aliaksandr Stasevich to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutAlexandr Konev asks for a word with the manager
6 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Miskevich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slonim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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.
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.
Marked 6.66 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Miskevich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slonim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Chuyko 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aliaksandr Stasevich after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slonim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Brest keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rady Yamlikhanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slonim people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Add another name to the list: Dnepr Mogilev have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ilya Lebedev. The answer from Slonim has not changed — yet.
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Mushulov 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.
88 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Slonim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rady Yamlikhanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slonim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roman Mushulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rady Yamlikhanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The offer from Bumprom Gomel for Denis Miskevich 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.
Dmitriy Sai 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitriy Sai, and the manager let it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Mushulov 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 Slonim, another week without a signature from Rady Yamlikhanov.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.