“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 The request is on a desk at Torpedo-BelAZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lokomotiv Gomel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Torpedo-BelAZ is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Uni-X Labs for Maxim Gaevoy 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.
Anton Suchkov 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.
16 goals in 17 games at Flora — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Torpedo-BelAZ updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gornik Zabrze will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Thodoros Tsirigotis 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo-BelAZ can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Torpedo-BelAZ people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo-BelAZ have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Volna Pinsk for Vladislav Krolik 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $33.4K — a club that wants Pavel Sergutko enough to be asked twice.
The deal with Gornik Zabrze 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo-BelAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to Gomel this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gornik Zabrze will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Gornik Zabrze, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kacper Urbański 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.
33 appearances and 11 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Roberto Massimo and Gornik Zabrze agree another 3 years.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Peter Federico 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gornik Zabrze told Erik Prekop something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bruno Durdov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yvan Ikia Dimi signs something — a contract at Gornik Zabrze or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gornik Zabrze will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lukáš Sadílek signs something — a contract at Gornik Zabrze or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gornik Zabrze, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gornik Zabrze will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gornik Zabrze lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
11 goals in 33 games at Polonia Warszawa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Gornik Zabrze updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Gornik Zabrze training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sondre Liseth 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gornik Zabrze, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Gornik Zabrze. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 114 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“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 Gornik Zabrze know it.
Marked 8.06 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gornik Zabrze will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
28 goals and a season average of 7.32. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
A brace, and Erik Prekop takes the afternoon — 9.04
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Erik Prekop provided it, and the 9.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 3, 57 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hubert Ogórek is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.27, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Bruno Durdov, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Mikita Volodko could afford to be generous.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Slavia Mozyr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavel Chikida 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.
16 goals in 28 games at Leiria — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Gornik Zabrze updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Gornik Zabrze are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Gornik Zabrze training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josema 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.
Marked 8.14 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I watch every Gornik Zabrze game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Slavia Mozyr runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gornik Zabrze this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slavia Mozyr they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Slavia Mozyr can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ilja Kalachev 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.
“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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Slavia Mozyr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olexandr Batischev 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.” Mikita Volodko after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
5 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slavia Mozyr have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Ilja Kalachev 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Sergei Malevich has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eduard Klimovich has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Slavia Mozyr have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
The deal that would have taken Vladislav Ignatjev to Isloch has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Slavia Mozyr with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Ilja Kalachev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Pavel Chikida 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.
Slonim next, and one man in the Slavia Mozyr dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Erik Prekop. 2‑1 against Radomiak Radom, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
14 goals in 24 games at Leiria — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Gornik Zabrze updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I watch every Gornik Zabrze game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Slavia Mozyr runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Arkadiusz Jozwiak could afford to be generous.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gornik Zabrze will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
14 goals in 20 games at Leiria — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Gornik Zabrze updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Gornik Zabrze training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josema 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.
Something was said to Kacper Urbański and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I watch every Gornik Zabrze game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Slavia Mozyr runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Olexandr Batischev 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pavel Chikida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 8.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Gornik Zabrze, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Valentine Nweke is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
11 goals in 16 games at Leiria — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Gornik Zabrze updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I did not go to Slavia Mozyr to sit and watch. I want to come back to Gornik Zabrze and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
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.
Denis Fedorenko 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bruno Durdov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Dmitriy Slesarchuk is on it.
Ricky Ngatchou 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Slavia Mozyr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olexandr Batischev 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.
In brief
The dugoutBruno Durdov asks for a word with the manager
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikita Melnikov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Mozyr 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vitaliy Likhtin and Slavia Mozyr agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Mozyr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bruno Durdov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Slavia Mozyr, another week without a signature from Nikita Melnikov.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slavia Mozyr they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Mozyr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Slavia Mozyr, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anatoliy Yarmolich, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Slavia Mozyr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavel Chikida 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.
Nobody at Slavia Mozyr 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.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
In brief
Loan watchRicky Ngatchou watches his loan from the bench
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gornik Zabrze will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slavia Mozyr they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Olexandr Batischev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Anton Lukashov and Slavia Mozyr agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Slutsk next, and one man in the Slavia Mozyr dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slavia Mozyr, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Valeriy Senko’s negotiating for him
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikita Melnikov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Mozyr the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Mura is saying, and nobody at Slavia Mozyr is enjoying the guessing.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Vitaliy Likhtin has agreed terms with Dinamo Brest for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Pavel Tseslyukevich has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Slavia Mozyr have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Baranovichi have kept their man, and Slavia Mozyr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Slavia Mozyr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olexandr Batischev 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Slavia Mozyr know which stage they are at.
Slavia Mozyr have made the call to Sparta Prague. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Andrey Shemruk is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Anton Lukashov
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gornik Zabrze will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Gornik Zabrze 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 Gornik Zabrze, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kacper Urbański 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AZ have kept their man, and Gornik Zabrze go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josema was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Andrey Solovey was one of the reasons people came, and $130.0K does not replace that by itself.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slavia Mozyr they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Slavia Mozyr have done the hard part with Gornik Zabrze, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Valeriy Senko has agreed terms with Dinamo Brest for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Slavia Mozyr asked and Dinamo Minsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Artem Vlasov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Slavia Mozyr have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lukáš Sadílek and Gornik Zabrze agree another 4 years.
Kacper Urbański 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Widzew Łódź have kept their man, and Gornik Zabrze go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Janis Antiste 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gornik Zabrze, another week without a signature from Kacper Urbański.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Gornik Zabrze training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thodoros Tsirigotis 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Filip Vecheta is in the works