Marked for Egor Noyok
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
Wages swallow 122% of the Lokomotiv Gomel 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Egor Noyok was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Lokomotiv Gomel
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market3 Jan 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 The request is on a desk at Lokomotiv Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Jan 2028
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Lokomotiv Gomel will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market3 Jan 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv Gomel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Vitaliy Likhtin 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Egor Noyok was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Market3 Jan 2028
“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.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Nov 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv Gomel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Vitaliy Likhtin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Egor Noyok was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Lokomotiv Gomel will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Market22 Nov 2027
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Lokomotiv Gomel money.
The dugout22 Nov 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 Lokomotiv Gomel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Nov 2027
Vitaliy Likhtin 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Danil Maltsev 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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
142% of the income goes out in wages at Lokomotiv Gomel
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 dugout1 Nov 2027
Egor Noyok 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.
Market1 Nov 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.
Market1 Nov 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sergei Dragun signs something — a contract at Lokomotiv Gomel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Oct 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maksim Savitski will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotiv Gomel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danil Maltsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Oct 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Valery Arlouski and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Egor Noyok 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 Lokomotiv Gomel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mikalai Zhavnerchik and Lokomotiv Gomel agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Vitaliy Likhtin 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danil Maltsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market13 Sep 2027
So close: Maxim Nazarov’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Molodechno moved on, Maxim Nazarov reports back to Lokomotiv Gomel, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Lokomotiv Gomel close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 10 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market13 Sep 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 Lokomotiv Gomel can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Minsk keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market13 Sep 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv Gomel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market13 Sep 2027
As if he never left: Mikita Hleb returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Mikita Hleb is a Lokomotiv Gomel player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Vitaliy Likhtin 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.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danil Maltsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 46. 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv Gomel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 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 Lokomotiv Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Lokomotiv Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danil Maltsev 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.
Match5 Jun 2027
A 2‑1 win over Slonim, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
A performance of 8.19 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad7 Jun 2027
The medical room confirms 38 days on the sidelines for Viktar Noyok, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad7 Jun 2027
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 May 2027
Evgeny Mamonov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv Gomel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 May 2027
Nikita Kukhtik 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.
Boardroom17 May 2027
166% of the income goes out in wages at Lokomotiv Gomel
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.
Market17 May 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Yuri Martynovich has his answer from Lokomotiv Gomel; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout17 May 2027
Nikita Kukhtik 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.
Market17 May 2027
Lokomotiv Gomel have made Mikita Hleb available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market17 May 2027
The Anton Laptev talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lokomotiv Gomel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Looking ahead17 May 2027
Ostrovets, position 10, come to town on Saturday. Nobody will call it a big game and nobody at the club will be treating it as anything else.
Squad17 May 2027
The selectors could not leave Hleb Balanovich out
6.63 across ninety minutes and a place in the division's team of the week. He was the best player on that pitch and everybody there knew it.