Marked for Danila Antonov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Jun 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 Bumprom Gomel can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Artem Miroevskiy 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 dugout26 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Vadim Fastovets has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Bumprom Gomel is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Bumprom Gomel asked and Dinamo Brest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Parmonov 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 targets26 Jun 2028
A loan enquiry to Torpedo-BelAZ: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
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.
The dugout26 Jun 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 dugout26 Jun 2028
Zaur Kasaev gets it from the manager
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings1 May 2028
A brace, and Kirill Parmonov takes the afternoon — 8.22
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kirill Parmonov provided it, and the 8.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad1 May 2028
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
Match29 Apr 2028
A 3‑2 win over Belshina, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout1 May 2028
Artem Soroko gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ivan Zhestkin has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad1 May 2028
Vadim Yakovlev 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 dugout1 May 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Valery Arlouski could afford to be generous.
The dugout1 May 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Bumprom Gomel told Daniil Kutsepalov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout1 May 2028
Maxim Samotoy 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 Samotoy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Feb 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 Bumprom Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Pressure builds in the Bumprom Gomel boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Bumprom Gomel until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets28 Feb 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Gomel keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Danil Pshenichnikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Parmonov 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.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Artem Soroko has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Bumprom Gomel know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market28 Feb 2028
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
It is arithmetic now, and the arithmetic is done. A summer of hard questions starts early at Slonim, and next season's fixture list reads very differently.
Squad6 Dec 2027
The knee: Viktor Berg out for 58 days
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Slonim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market6 Dec 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slonim is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Dec 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 Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Slonim
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roman Mushulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout6 Dec 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 Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
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.
Market6 Dec 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nikita Chuyko’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market6 Dec 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Alexandr Konev may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Nov 2027
The knee: Viktor Berg out for 86 days
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Slonim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market8 Nov 2027
Danila Antonov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slonim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Nov 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 Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Nikita Chuyko 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Dmitriy Sai makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
Viktor Berg 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 Viktor Berg trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Oct 2027
The knee: Viktor Berg out for 114 days
114 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Slonim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market11 Oct 2027
Danila Antonov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slonim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Chuyko 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.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
Everything rides on Smorgon
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Slonim know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Slonim
Ivan Yakovlev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Alexandr Konev 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 Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
Smorgon next, and one man in the Slonim dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market11 Oct 2027
“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
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
The knee: Viktor Berg out for 143 days
143 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Slonim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match11 Sep 2027
7 matches without a win for Slonim
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Slonim are no longer polite ones.
The terraces13 Sep 2027
A frightened ground at Slonim
Position 14, 12 points, and a crowd that arrives braced. Seasons are lost in exactly this atmosphere and everybody who has lived through one knows the sound of it.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A one-man rearguard from Dmitriy Sai
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Slonim until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market13 Sep 2027
Danila Antonov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slonim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market13 Sep 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Uni-X Labs moved on, Denis Miskevich reports back to Slonim, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad13 Sep 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 Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match11 Sep 2027
1‑3 to Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Aug 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market9 Aug 2027
“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 Slonim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Neman keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match7 Aug 2027
4 matches without a win for Slonim
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Slonim are no longer polite ones.
Market9 Aug 2027
Only the photograph left for Danila Antonov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danila Antonov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slonim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Slonim
Arseniy Zhukovskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Radik Mosoyan gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Radik Mosoyan has just signed for Slonim, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Chuyko 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
A brace, and Arseniy Zhukovskiy takes the afternoon — 9.38
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Arseniy Zhukovskiy provided it, and the 9.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market12 Jul 2027
“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.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Alexandr Konev pops up at the right end — 7.79
7.79, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Lokomotiv Gomel; Slonim go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Market12 Jul 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slonim is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
A hand in 2 of them from Egor Petrov — 7.68
Marked 7.68. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Slonim
Rady Yamlikhanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match10 Jul 2027
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Slonim and Dnepr Mogilev in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match10 Jul 2027
Three points for Slonim, 4‑2 the final word against Dnepr Mogilev in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Jun 2027
It had gone 13 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Market14 Jun 2027
“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 Slonim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Nikita Chuyko, 21, steals the show — 7.62
Marked 7.62 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.86, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market14 Jun 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slonim is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 Jun 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 Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Slonim
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Chuyko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
He is 22 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.
Match12 Jun 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Arseniy Zhukovskiy. 2‑0 against Molodechno, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Danila Antonov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danila Antonov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slonim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 May 2027
Nikita Chuyko 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 dugout17 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Alexandr Konev
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Apr 2027
The wait goes on for Slonim
7 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.
Market19 Apr 2027
Danila Antonov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slonim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Slonim
Viktor Berg 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Slonim
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roman Mushulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match17 Apr 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Alexandr Konev
“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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Viktor Berg 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 Viktor Berg trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead19 Apr 2027
Slonim take on the side everybody is chasing
Dinamo Brest arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match20 Mar 2027
0‑4 to Dnepr Mogilev, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market22 Mar 2027
Only the photograph left for Danila Antonov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danila Antonov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slonim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Roman Mushulov 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Konev, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Mar 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 Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
Nobody left the Slonim dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad22 Mar 2027
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Dmitriy Sai knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Aliaksandr Stasevich to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Dmitriy Sai is still paying for one afternoon at Slonim
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Slonim have done the hard part with Vitebsk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market22 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slonim is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Slonim
Dmitriy Sai 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 targets22 Feb 2027
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Nikita Chuyko 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
“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.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
A loan move for Pedro Acácio is in the works
Slonim have made the call to Torpedo-BelAZ. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
86% of the income goes out in wages at Slonim
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Artur Chuyko 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 Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Feb 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slonim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Brest keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Dmitriy Sai in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. BATE have kept their man, and Slonim go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Vladimir Dziov 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.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to Torpedo-BelAZ: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to Torpedo-BelAZ: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Ilya Lebedev
“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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rady Yamlikhanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Uni-X Labs waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slonim is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market8 Feb 2027
The bid was some way short and Slonim did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Isloch is saying, and nobody at Slonim is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Brest have kept their man, and Slonim go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Slonim
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roman Mushulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Feb 2027
57 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Gomel 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.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
A loan move for Alexey Zhechko is in the works
Slonim have made the call to Dinamo Minsk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vitaliy Para, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
Alexandr Turuk damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Slonim
Dmitriy Sai 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Dziov 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.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Wages eat 89% of everything Slonim earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market25 Jan 2027
Ivan Semin told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ivan Semin has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Slonim.
Market25 Jan 2027
The Ilya Lebedev talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slonim know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market25 Jan 2027
“He is at an age where he has to be playing at the top level. We will listen to anybody.” The representative of Alexandr Turuk is not being subtle.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Slonim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market11 Jan 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slonim is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Slonim
Dmitriy Sai and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market11 Jan 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Valery Skavysh is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market11 Jan 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Valery 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Mushulov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
Alexandr Turuk damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Slonim
Dmitriy Sai 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 dugout4 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Dziov 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 dugout4 Jan 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Artur Chuyko 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 Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.