Marked for Dmitry Philippov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 May 2030
No end in sight to Naftan's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Naftan has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 May 2030
A falling-out at Naftan
Yamoussa Camara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 May 2030
Words at Naftan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tymoteusz Ryguła 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 May 2030
“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.
Match11 May 2030
A bad afternoon for Naftan against Vitebsk
0‑1 to Vitebsk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout13 May 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Hleb Laptev to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout13 May 2030
Golden Mafwenta has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Naftan 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 May 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Egor Yuschenko’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad13 May 2030
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Naftan will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 May 2030
No end in sight to Naftan's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Naftan has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad6 May 2030
Words exchanged at Naftan
Yamoussa Camara 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.
Squad6 May 2030
A row about effort at Naftan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tymoteusz Ryguła was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match4 May 2030
0‑2 to Torpedo-BelAZ, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout6 May 2030
“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 dugout6 May 2030
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad6 May 2030
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Dmitry Philippov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout6 May 2030
Egor Yuschenko 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 Egor Yuschenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout6 May 2030
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 Grigory Lovtsov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Apr 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market22 Apr 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Naftan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Tymoteusz Ryguła 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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
A falling-out at Naftan
Artur Tishko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Apr 2030
26 games in 65 appearances where nobody scored at all. A keeper's career is counted in nothing happening, and none of this happened by accident.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitry Philippov, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
The manager has not finished forgetting Golden Mafwenta's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Hleb Laptev after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Looking ahead22 Apr 2030
The leaders are next for Naftan
Dinamo Brest top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Apr 2030
Evgeniy Gremza damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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 ratings15 Apr 2030
Artur Tishko goes up and wins it — 7.67
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.67 for the rest of it.
Squad15 Apr 2030
A falling-out at Naftan
Yamoussa Camara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Tymoteusz Ryguła 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 dugout15 Apr 2030
“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.
Player ratings15 Apr 2030
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match13 Apr 2030
It needed Artur Tishko to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Minsk, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout15 Apr 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Hleb Laptev chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout15 Apr 2030
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 Arseny Tarasov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Apr 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Evgeniy Gremza
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Naftan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
“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.
Market1 Apr 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vyacheslav Khudoklinov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Naftan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Tempers go at Naftan
Yamoussa Camara 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at Naftan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tymoteusz Ryguła 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 Apr 2030
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ilja Molteninov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Market1 Apr 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Naftan, another week without a signature from Dmitry Philippov.
Looking ahead1 Apr 2030
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk next, and one man in the Naftan dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market1 Apr 2030
The name of Arseniy Galushko keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Naftan say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Mar 2030
Evgeniy Gremza damages knee ligaments — 51 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
Squad18 Mar 2030
A falling-out at Naftan
Yamoussa Camara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Mar 2030
Naftan come up short against BATE
BATE left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Arseniy Galushko 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 dugout18 Mar 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilja Molteninov, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Hleb Laptev left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
Maxim Sapriko 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 Maxim Sapriko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market18 Mar 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Egor Yuschenko’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
The plan did not have a place for Marcel Stenka
Nobody at Naftan is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Feb 2030
81 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Naftan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets18 Feb 2030
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Minsk keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets18 Feb 2030
$230.0K on the table at Neman. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad18 Feb 2030
A falling-out at Naftan
Yamoussa Camara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets18 Feb 2030
Naftan asked and BATE said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Words at Naftan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tymoteusz Ryguła 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.
Transfer targets18 Feb 2030
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Brest: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market18 Feb 2030
Naftan have made Maxim Sapriko available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
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 Yaroslav Chistyakov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Feb 2030
90 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Naftan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market11 Feb 2030
“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 Naftan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Feb 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Naftan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2030
Everything agreed with BATE, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2030
Naftan had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Torpedo-BelAZ, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Tempers go at Naftan
Yamoussa Camara 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.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2030
Minsk wanted more than $64.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2030
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.
Squad11 Feb 2030
A row about effort at Naftan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tymoteusz Ryguła was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Jan 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Evgeniy Gremza
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Naftan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Jan 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Naftan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jan 2030
A row about effort at Naftan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alimkhan Zainivov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
Egor Yuschenko 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 Egor Yuschenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yaroslav Chistyakov, and the manager let it.
Market21 Jan 2030
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Naftan
Yamoussa Camara 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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Words at Naftan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tymoteusz Ryguła 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.
Market17 Dec 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Maxim Sapriko’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
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 dugout17 Dec 2029
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Maxim Druchik has written the date down.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
The manager plants his flag on Maxim Sapriko
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Maxim Sapriko’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout15 Oct 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Naftan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Oct 2029
A row about effort at Naftan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tymoteusz Ryguła was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Tempers go at Naftan
Ilja Molteninov 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 dugout15 Oct 2029
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 dugout15 Oct 2029
Maxim Sapriko 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 Maxim Sapriko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market15 Oct 2029
Luca Crăciun is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Naftan has been clear about where Luca Crăciun stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
The manager makes an example of Luca Crăciun
“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 Oct 2029
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Naftan has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market15 Oct 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Egor Yuschenko signs something — a contract at Naftan or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Sep 2029
“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 Naftan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match15 Sep 2029
It finished 2‑1, and it was Grigory Lovtsov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Naftan.
Squad17 Sep 2029
A falling-out at Naftan
Arseniy Galushko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces17 Sep 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Egor Yuschenko 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.
Transfer targets17 Sep 2029
The clock did what Neman would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
A performance of 8.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
A promise honoured at Naftan
Something was said to Marcel Stenka and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Hleb Laptev on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
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 Golden Mafwenta is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market13 Nov 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Baranovichi can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“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.
Market13 Nov 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Baranovichi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad13 Nov 2028
At 21 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.
Squad13 Nov 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 Baranovichi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Baranovichi expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Stanislav Stefanovich.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Yan Shumskiy 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Baranovichi will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
Artem Petrenko 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.