Marked for Ihar Signevich
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Sep 2028
Every point is an argument now for Lokomotiv Gomel
Position 13 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market11 Sep 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lokomotiv Gomel may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Hleb 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.
Market11 Sep 2028
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Yahor Hleb leaves Lokomotiv Gomel the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Market11 Sep 2028
The window shut and Akos Botka is still in the building
Lokomotiv Gomel spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Aug 2028
The run now stands at 39, and the questions being asked around Lokomotiv Gomel are no longer polite ones.
The terraces28 Aug 2028
The mood at Lokomotiv Gomel has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market28 Aug 2028
“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.
Match26 Aug 2028
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Lokomotiv Gomel can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Hleb 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.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
Wages eat 243% of everything Lokomotiv Gomel 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.
Match26 Aug 2028
0‑2 to Slonim, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Jul 2028
The run now stands at 35, and the questions being asked around Lokomotiv Gomel are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom24 Jul 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.
Match22 Jul 2028
0‑3 to Belshina, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Hleb Rios 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.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
Nobody could get near Hleb Rios
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Nobody left the Lokomotiv Gomel dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad24 Jul 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
The plan did not have a place for Artem Arlouski
Nobody at Lokomotiv Gomel is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Squad24 Jul 2028
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Mar 2028
No end in sight to Lokomotiv Gomel's wait for a win
18 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lokomotiv Gomel has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 46. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match25 Mar 2028
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Lokomotiv Gomel can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Hleb 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.
Match25 Mar 2028
Uni-X Labs left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad27 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Ihar Signevich
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Feb 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lokomotiv Gomel may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Hleb Rios 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Jan 2028
Every point is an argument now for Lokomotiv Gomel
Position 13 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Anton Korzun has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Hleb Rios 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Nikita Patsko loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Nikita Patsko's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Squad3 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Sergei Bykau
“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.