Marked for Zvonimir Boric
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Jan 2030
Belshina up to position 3
39 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Nikita Golub 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 Belshina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Words at Belshina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Solanovich 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.
Boardroom21 Jan 2030
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
“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.
Boardroom21 Jan 2030
Wages eat 101% of everything Belshina 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.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
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 Stanislav Lomako is on it.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Belshina, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market21 Jan 2030
The name of Nikita Golub keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Belshina say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Dec 2029
Belshina refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 39 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Nikita Golub 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 Belshina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Words at Belshina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanislav Lomako 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.
Boardroom24 Dec 2029
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Boardroom24 Dec 2029
Wages swallow 114% of the Belshina income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
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 dugout24 Dec 2029
The manager makes an example of Zvonimir Boric
“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.
Market24 Dec 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Pavel Prishivalko’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad24 Dec 2029
“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 Belshina will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Oct 2029
Egor Volodko hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Belshina can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Nikita Golub 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.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Stanislav Lomako 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 Oct 2029
“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 dugout22 Oct 2029
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 dugout22 Oct 2029
Ilya Vikhrov 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 Ilya Vikhrov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Sep 2029
“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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Belshina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Sep 2029
A row about effort at Belshina
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Golub was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Sep 2029
Belshina asked and Minsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
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 dugout17 Sep 2029
“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 dugout17 Sep 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Belshina, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market17 Sep 2029
Belshina spent the window trying to move Zvonimir Boric on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
Squad17 Sep 2029
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
Market27 Aug 2029
“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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
A falling-out at Belshina
Pavel Prishivalko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Aug 2029
A row about effort at Belshina
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Golub was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets27 Aug 2029
Belshina asked and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets27 Aug 2029
A loan enquiry to Slavia Mozyr: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market27 Aug 2029
Ivan Laptev is 19, and Belshina have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
Pavel Prishivalko has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Belshina 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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
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.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
Stanislav Lomako asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Aug 2029
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Belshina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings6 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 33. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match4 Aug 2029
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Belshina did not have in the autumn.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Belshina have done the hard part with Neman, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market6 Aug 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Belshina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Zvonimir Boric gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Zvonimir Boric has just signed for Belshina, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad6 Aug 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stanislav Lomako and Belshina agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
The owner puts $315.4K into Belshina
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Nikita Golub 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.