Marked for Artem Chalavach
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 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 Lokomotiv Gomel can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lokomotiv Gomel have done the hard part with Lida, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Yahor Rios 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 targets19 Jun 2028
Lokomotiv Gomel asked and Naftan 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 targets19 Jun 2028
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.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sergei Rios after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aleksey Zorin, and the manager let it.
Match17 Jun 2028
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Volna Pinsk defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 May 2028
Stanislav Pronin is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Yan Kavalyou 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 Lokomotiv Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout22 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Sergei Rios chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Match20 May 2028
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Bumprom Gomel? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The dugout22 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Bykau, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 May 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 dugout22 May 2028
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Looking ahead22 May 2028
Next up on the road: Slonim, position 12. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Apr 2028
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Osipovichi had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Yan Rios
“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.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Match22 Apr 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Osipovichi leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Sergei Rios: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Artem Chalavach has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Lokomotiv Gomel 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.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Squad24 Apr 2028
It went in off him and he did not care in the slightest. 1 for the season now, and a forward who has scored is a different footballer by Tuesday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Match1 Apr 2028
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Lokomotiv Gomel are no longer polite ones.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Anton Klimovich 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 ratings3 Apr 2028
Marked 7.28. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Hleb Martynovich is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
Sergei Rios: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Sergei Ihnatovich has moved up it.
Market3 Apr 2028
Artem Chalavach is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lokomotiv Gomel has been clear about where Artem Chalavach stands, which is more than many ever get.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yuri Yablonski
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokomotiv Gomel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Ivan Laptev 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 dugout10 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Lokomotiv Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Bykau 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 dugout10 Jan 2028
Yan Kavalyou 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 Yan Kavalyou trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.