Marked for Dmitriy Simankov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmitriy Simankov
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Smorgon lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Smorgon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Smorgon
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Smorgon is running low.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Smorgon
Daniil Perov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Smorgon
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Egor Babich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
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Market4 Jan 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Smorgon, another week without a signature from Dmitriy Fedortsov.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vadim Galko and Smorgon agree another 3 years.
Market4 Jan 2027
Great Agbo is 20, and Smorgon have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces28 Dec 2026
Supporters organise against the Smorgon board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad28 Dec 2026
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Smorgon lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Egor Babich 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 Smorgon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Smorgon
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniil Perov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
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The dugout28 Dec 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Smorgon, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
Dmitriy Simankov damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Daniil Perov 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
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The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Egor Babich
“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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Artem Devyaten 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
Daniil Perov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Smorgon 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.