2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Belshina the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Osipovichi will enjoy reviewing.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nhlanhla Gasa did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osipovichi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Osipovichi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evgeniy Elezarenko 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.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Usman Sadiq was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Osipovichi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Nhlanhla Gasa, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.13
A mark of 8.13 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Usman Sadiq has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osipovichi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Aliaksandr Stasevich has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Evgeniy Elezarenko 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Osipovichi, another week without a signature from Nikita Karpuk.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Osipovichi told Vladimir Pekarik something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osipovichi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Usman Sadiq 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.
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.
In brief
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Ivan Stosh's mistake
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osipovichi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Osipovichi would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Evgeniy Elezarenko 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 Feb 2027
Words at Osipovichi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Usman Sadiq 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.
Evgeniy Elezarenko 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.
“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 Osipovichi, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osipovichi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
74 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Osipovichi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Usman Sadiq 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osipovichi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osipovichi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Osipovichi, another week without a signature from Usman Sadiq.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osipovichi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Usman Sadiq 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.
Evgeniy Elezarenko 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Osipovichi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Krotov 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.
Evgeniy Elezarenko 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Osipovichi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Usman Sadiq 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Osipovichi know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osipovichi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
105% of the income goes out in wages at Osipovichi
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.
“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 Osipovichi, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Oleg Tyulkov 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 Oct 2026
Usman Sadiq 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.
“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 Osipovichi, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osipovichi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Osipovichi, another week without a signature from Usman Sadiq.
Kano Pillars go through and Katsina United go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Katsina United can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Daniel Agara did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer from US Forces Armees for Usman Sadiq was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Katsina United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Joshua Enaholo 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.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Azeez Falolu 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.
A brace, and Elijah Akanni takes the afternoon — 8.60
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Elijah Akanni provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joshua Enaholo and Katsina United agree another 3 years.
Joshua Enaholo 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.
It finished 3‑1, and it was Elijah Akanni’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Katsina United.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Azeez Falolu 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Barau spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Still no offer on the table, and Joshua Enaholo’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.