Marked for Bogdan Levchenko
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Yuriy Pantia out for 74 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Neman will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Feb 2027
Lida come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Neman did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Neman
Anton Suchkov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Alashkert have kept their man, and Neman go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to Vitebsk: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Besiktas have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Open for business: Neman enter the window
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
Squad1 Feb 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 Neman will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
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 Andrey Yakimov has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
95 days out for Yuriy Pantia after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Neman will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad11 Jan 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 Neman this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Shérif Jimoh
“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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bogdan Levchenko commits to Neman for another 4 years.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Neman, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
16 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Yuriy Pantia out for 118 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Neman will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Neman
Anton Suchkov 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
Oleg Evdokimov 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 Neman, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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 Mikhail Kozlov has written the date down.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
Yuriy Pantia breaks a bone — 150 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 150 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market23 Nov 2026
Dmitriy Girs has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Neman they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Neman
Sergey Pushnyakov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“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 dugout23 Nov 2026
Mikhail Kozlov 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 Mikhail Kozlov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Neman will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.