Marked for Andrei Kislyak
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Mar 2033
Alexey Yazepov damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings7 Mar 2033
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.43, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market7 Mar 2033
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Osipovichi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Slavia Mozyr is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market7 Mar 2033
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Torpedo-BelAZ moved on, Nikita Vekhtev reports back to Slavia Mozyr, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The dugout7 Mar 2033
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market7 Mar 2033
“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 The request is on a desk at Slavia Mozyr, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Mar 2033
Only the photograph left for Maksim Sivakov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maksim Sivakov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Mozyr the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Mar 2033
Ricky Ngatchou 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.
Boardroom7 Mar 2033
13 academy players handed senior numbers at Slavia Mozyr
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Oct 2032
Ricky Ngatchou 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.
The dugout18 Oct 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Evgeniy Abramovich, and the manager let it.
Squad18 Oct 2032
Words at Slavia Mozyr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matvey Papulin 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.
Match16 Oct 2032
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Squad18 Oct 2032
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Slavia Mozyr know it.
The dugout18 Oct 2032
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 Sergey Guzarevich is on it.
The dugout18 Oct 2032
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.” Marc Voigt chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Player ratings18 Oct 2032
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Sep 2032
Chastening afternoon for Slavia Mozyr
A 1‑4 beating by BATE was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kristoffer Hertzberg Vestgøte scored, was marked 7.26, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Ricky Ngatchou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matvey Papulin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom27 Sep 2032
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout27 Sep 2032
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad27 Sep 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andrei Volodko commits to Slavia Mozyr for another 3 years.
The dugout27 Sep 2032
The team sheet said everything about Enea Pitti
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Enea Pitti.
The dugout27 Sep 2032
Nobody at Slavia Mozyr 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Sep 2032
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Mozyr people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market6 Sep 2032
“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 Slavia Mozyr, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market6 Sep 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nurkhan Gasymov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Mozyr the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Sep 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ivan Milićević and Slavia Mozyr agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Sergey Guzarevich 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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2032
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market6 Sep 2032
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Slavia Mozyr have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matvey Papulin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout6 Sep 2032
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Jun 2032
0‑3 against Minsk, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market28 Jun 2032
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Slavia Mozyr have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market28 Jun 2032
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
Everything agreed with Dinamo Minsk, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Ricky Ngatchou 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
Slavia Mozyr offered $210.0K; Torpedo-BelAZ said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market28 Jun 2032
The name of Maksim Sivakov has come up in conversations Slavia Mozyr were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Words at Slavia Mozyr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matvey Papulin 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Jun 2031
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market23 Jun 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Slavia Mozyr have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match21 Jun 2031
No end in sight to Slavia Mozyr's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Slavia Mozyr has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
The deal with Amiens SC is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Ricky Ngatchou and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Jun 2031
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Slavia Mozyr know it.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Words at Slavia Mozyr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuliy Kuznetsov 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.
Match23 Jun 2031
Position 5, 25 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.