Marked for Sergey Zhurnevich
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 May 2028
Sergey Zhurnevich damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Player ratings8 May 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.70, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout8 May 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Neman may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market8 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Neman is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sergey Pushnyakov and Neman agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 May 2028
Tito Tito Yormie Jr. 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.
Match6 May 2028
A 2‑1 win over Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad8 May 2028
Tempers go at Neman
Vladimir Tonkevich 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 dugout8 May 2028
Hleb Korzun: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 May 2028
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Neman lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market1 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Neman is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Neman training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleg Evdokimov 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Tempers go at Neman
Mikhail Kozlov 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.
Market1 May 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Andrey Vasiljev has his answer from Neman; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout1 May 2028
A promise honoured at Neman
Something was said to Artur Nazarenko and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout1 May 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.
The dugout1 May 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.
The dugout1 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrey Vasiljev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Oct 2027
A fracture rules Vadim Ivanovskiy out for 43 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lida will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“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.
Market18 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lida is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Lida
Alexey Legchilin 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.
Boardroom18 Oct 2027
The numbers do not look good at Lida
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Alexandr Karnitskiy 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.