Danila Firsov

Striker - Dnepr Mogilev
23 Sep 2029
Sunday
Process

Marked for Danila Firsov

156 Edition

The Dnepr Mogilev Courier

23 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Anger at Dnepr Mogilev spills outside the ground

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.

Market

Nikolay Sobolev asks to leave Dnepr Mogilev

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Dnepr Mogilev say no — this time

The offer from Vitebsk for Alexey Dunaev 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Dnepr Mogilev

Dmitriy Guschenko 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.

Squad

Words at Dnepr Mogilev training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Dunaev 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Roman Piletskiy

Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Dmitriy Guschenko

“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.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Kirill Kirilenko at his very best

Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dnepr Mogilev.

Match

Dnepr Mogilev and Smorgon take a point apiece

It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

In brief

Back issues
152 Edition

The Dnepr Mogilev Courier

25 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Anger at Dnepr Mogilev spills outside the ground

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.

Squad

Gleb Aldanov says Dnepr Mogilev went back on their word

“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.

Match

5 matches without a win for Dnepr Mogilev

The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Dnepr Mogilev are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Kirill Kirilenko in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dnepr Mogilev this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Dnepr Mogilev training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Guschenko 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.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Alexey Dunaev

“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.

Player ratings

Kirill Kirilenko in the eights

A performance of 8.37 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Match

Dnepr Mogilev share the spoils with Dinamo Minsk

A 1‑1 draw with Dinamo Minsk leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Andrey Potapenko

Successful dribbles: 9. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief

146 Edition

The Dnepr Mogilev Courier

14 May 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Dnepr Mogilev

15 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.

Market

Alexey Dunaev is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dnepr Mogilev is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Match

Ruslan Radyukevich’s goal not enough for Dnepr Mogilev

Ruslan Radyukevich scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Minsk, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

Squad

Dmitriy Guschenko 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.

Squad

Andrey Shemruk in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dnepr Mogilev this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The terraces

Dnepr Mogilev supporters have found a favourite in Nikolay Sobolev

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Nikolay Sobolev 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.

Squad

Alexey Dunaev gets it from the manager

“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.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Nikolay Sobolev at his very best

Marked 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dnepr Mogilev.

Squad

Danila Firsov signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Danila Firsov commits to Dnepr Mogilev for another 3 years.

In brief

134 Edition

The Dnepr Mogilev Courier

19 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at Dnepr Mogilev

Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Dnepr Mogilev is running low.

Market

Only the photograph left for Alexey Dunaev

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexey Dunaev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dnepr Mogilev the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Dnepr Mogilev

Kirill Kirilenko 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.

Squad

Dmitriy Guschenko 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.

Squad

Dmitriy Guschenko 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.

Squad

“I want to play”: Timofey Kuksa speaks

“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.

In brief

119 Edition

The Dnepr Mogilev Courier

6 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Joseph Djiku breaks a bone — 90 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Words at Dnepr Mogilev training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Guschenko 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Dnepr Mogilev

Andrey Shemruk 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.

In brief

107 Edition

The Dnepr Mogilev Courier

14 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Arjuna Agung

41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dnepr Mogilev lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Vladislav Tarasenko puts it in writing

“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 Dnepr Mogilev, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Tempers go at Dnepr Mogilev

Kirill Kirilenko 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.

In brief

103 Edition

The Dnepr Mogilev Courier

17 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Arjuna Agung

69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dnepr Mogilev lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Andrey Potapenko breaks a bone — 28 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Match

A hiding for Dnepr Mogilev

Beaten 0‑3 by Dinamo Brest, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Squad

Tempers go at Dnepr Mogilev

Kirill Kirilenko 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.

Squad

Dmitriy Guschenko 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.

Boardroom

Inquest at Dnepr Mogilev

The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.

Player ratings

An afternoon Vadim Afanasjev will want back

Marked 5.52. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.

Player ratings

Kirill Kirilenko could not find anything

5.68. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.

Player ratings

A day to forget for Nikolay Sobolev

Marked 5.68, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.

In brief

102 Edition

The Dnepr Mogilev Courier

10 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Arjuna Agung damages knee ligaments — 77 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 77 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.

Squad

Andrey Potapenko breaks a bone — 35 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Ruslan Radyukevich at 21 — 8.17

The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ruslan Radyukevich did not need any: 8.17, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad

Danila Firsov keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dnepr Mogilev may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Kirill Kirilenko in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dnepr Mogilev this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Maxim Modulev

At 21 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.

In brief

99 Edition

The Dnepr Mogilev Courier

19 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Arjuna Agung damages knee ligaments — 100 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 100 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.

Squad

Markus Liivak breaks a bone — 41 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Tempers go at Dnepr Mogilev

Kirill Kirilenko 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.

Squad

Words at Dnepr Mogilev training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Piletskiy 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.

Match

Roman Piletskiy sends Dnepr Mogilev past BATE

It finished 2‑1, and it was Roman Piletskiy’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Dnepr Mogilev.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Nikolay Sobolev

At 21 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.

Player ratings

Kirill Zabelin in the eights

A performance of 8.62 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Player ratings

Roman Piletskiy was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.51. 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.

Match

Roman Piletskiy answers BATE immediately

Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Roman Piletskiy had Dnepr Mogilev level again within 1 minutes, and BATE never got to play with a lead at all.

In brief

89 Edition

The Dnepr Mogilev Courier

10 Apr 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The cup run ends for Dnepr Mogilev

2‑3 against Baranovichi, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.

Squad

A fracture rules Arjuna Agung out for 31 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dnepr Mogilev will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Player ratings

Andrey Potapenko scores twice — 8.00

Two goals and a mark of 8.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

A first appearance Brent Zenjov will want to forget — 5.61

Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.61, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.

Squad

Tempers go at Dnepr Mogilev

Kirill Kirilenko 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.

Squad

Dmitriy Guschenko 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.

In brief

80 Edition

The Dnepr Mogilev Courier

7 Feb 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Anger at Dnepr Mogilev spills outside the ground

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.

Boardroom

Egor Noyok has until the next board meeting

What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Dnepr Mogilev can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.

Boardroom

The Dnepr Mogilev board call everybody in

Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.

Market

Dinamo Minsk come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Dnepr Mogilev did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Joseph Djiku puts it in writing

“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 Dnepr Mogilev, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Kirill Kirilenko in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dnepr Mogilev this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Dnepr Mogilev training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Guschenko 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.

Squad

Danila Firsov signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Danila Firsov commits to Dnepr Mogilev for another 3 years.

Squad

Joseph Djiku wants to go home

“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 Dnepr Mogilev know it.

In brief

79 Edition

The Dnepr Mogilev Courier

31 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Vadim Arutyunyan asks to leave Dnepr Mogilev

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Vadim Arutyunyan attracts admirers

The name of Vadim Arutyunyan has come up in conversations Dnepr Mogilev were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Market

As if he never left: Danila Firsov returns

Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Danila Firsov is a Dnepr Mogilev player again, and the town has its story of the summer.

Squad

Tempers go at Dnepr Mogilev

Kirill Kirilenko 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.

Squad

Dmitriy Guschenko 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.

Squad

Andrey Shemruk gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

71 Edition

The Isloch Sentinel

6 Dec 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Sergey Rusak keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Isloch may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Tempers go at Isloch

Evgeniy Yudchits 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.

Squad

Sergey Rusak signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sergey Rusak and Isloch agree another 1 years.

In brief

68 Edition

The Isloch Sentinel

15 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Andrey Klimovich

82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Isloch lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Evgeniy Yudchits in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Isloch this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

No hiding place for Vladimir Khvaschinskiy

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vladimir Khvaschinskiy, and the manager let it.

In brief