Marked for Astjon Sulce
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Oct 2028
Ilja Skrobotov damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Market30 Oct 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Slutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Slutsk
Ilja Skrobotov 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 dugout30 Oct 2028
Maxim Druchik back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Slutsk has worked with Maxim Druchik before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Alexandr Kuradovets 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 dugout30 Oct 2028
Maxim Mitskevich has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Slutsk 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Oct 2028
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Slutsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market16 Oct 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Slutsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Oct 2028
Daniil Lesko has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slutsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Slutsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Fedosov 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 Oct 2028
Maxim Druchik back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Slutsk has worked with Maxim Druchik before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Squad16 Oct 2028
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Squad16 Oct 2028
A falling-out at Slutsk
Astjon Sulce and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market16 Oct 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Slutsk, another week without a signature from Kirill Suslov.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladislav Sychev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
Pressure builds in the VPS boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad31 Jan 2028
A falling-out at VPS
Simon van Duivenbooden and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tijjani Mohammed commits to VPS for another 4 years.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
Aleksi Piispa is still paying for one afternoon at VPS
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at VPS training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zé Luiz 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.
Market31 Jan 2028
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout31 Jan 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 dugout31 Jan 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. VPS told Tijjani Mohammed something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad31 Jan 2028
No place for Simone Sechi in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation VPS are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Oct 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around VPS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Oct 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 VPS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Aleksi Piispa
“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.
Loan watch25 Oct 2027
“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 VPS, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Miika Niemi 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 dugout25 Oct 2027
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 dugout25 Oct 2027
Faris Krkalić knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at VPS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market25 Oct 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Emmanuel Okereke’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad25 Oct 2027
“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 VPS will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.