Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dnepr Mogilev waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Naftan is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Artem Drabatovich had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Naftan have made the call to Lokomotiv Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A loan enquiry to Lokomotiv Moscow: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Alexey Kharitonovich may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Naftan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artemiy Litvinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Ilya Chmut is on it.
In brief
The dugoutMatvey Susha knocks on the manager's door
“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 Nikolay Leshkevich.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artemiy Litvinov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Matvey Susha is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Naftan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vadim Yakovlev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Naftan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Adrien Thibaut 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Denys Shelikhov and Naftan agree another 1 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Naftan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artemiy Litvinov 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexey Kharitonovich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Matvey Susha
15 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.
“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.
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 Alexandr Alexandrovich is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vadim Yakovlev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Naftan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Evgeniy Karpovich.
In brief
The dugoutMatvey Susha has become a man the manager trusts
29 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Naftan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Naftan. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
In brief
The dugoutMatvey Susha has become a man the manager trusts
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Alimkhan Zainivov obliged against Bumprom Gomel. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Naftan.
Lida will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Dmitriy Vashkevich has pre-agreed a move to Naftan, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
At 21 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.
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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Denis Khodyko has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Naftan have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yahor 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vadzim Balanovich is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Egor 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hleb Arlouski is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.