Marked for Stepan Gomonov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Aug 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 Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Stepan Gomonov: 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.” Slonim have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Slonim have done the hard part with Dinamo Minsk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad16 Aug 2027
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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 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.
Squad16 Aug 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
Uni-X Labs left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Dmitriy Sai 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.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Window shuts: 0 in, 0 out at Slonim
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Slonim
Rady Yamlikhanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
Slonim asked and Torpedo-BelAZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Roman Mushulov 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.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Slonim will try again when the window opens; Molodechno may not be selling by then.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vitaliy Para, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Looking ahead1 Mar 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kirill Krutorozhkin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Slonim needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Ivan Furmanov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Slonim
Rady Yamlikhanov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaliy Para 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stepan Gomonov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
The Slonim board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad2 Nov 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 Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 127% of everything Slonim earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Stepan Gomonov 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.
Market2 Nov 2026
Slonim have made Marat Kalinchenko available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.