Marked for František Doležel
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 May 2029
The wait goes on for Belshina
11 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.
Squad7 May 2029
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Belshina will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match7 May 2029
Belshina sink to position 15
4 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom7 May 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Belshina
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market7 May 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Belshina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 May 2029
Vladislav Rusenchik 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.
Match5 May 2029
3 matches without a goal for Belshina
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad7 May 2029
Vladislav Solanovich 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.
Market7 May 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Belshina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A row about effort at Belshina
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandr Kuchinskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“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.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
A promise honoured at Belshina
Something was said to Evgeniy Sakuta and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
Andrey Rum knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrey Rum trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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.
Market25 Dec 2028
Belshina have made Gonçalo Silva available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market25 Dec 2028
The clock does Sotirios Mitroglou’s negotiating for him
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Belshina could ask drops and the wages Sotirios Mitroglou can ask rise.
Market25 Dec 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikita Patsenko signs something — a contract at Belshina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match13 Nov 2028
Belshina up to position 2
50 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
This is not rotation. Abu Sufyan Waddu has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Belshina is pretending otherwise.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words exchanged at Belshina
Vladislav Rusenchik 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 dugout13 Nov 2028
“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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Belshina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Kuchinskiy 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 dugout13 Nov 2028
Nobody at Belshina 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.
Market13 Nov 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
Evgeniy Sakuta 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.
Market13 Nov 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Abu Sufyan Waddu’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.