Marked for Patrick Lainer
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Feb 2043
The offer from Naftan for Stefan Laimer was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market23 Feb 2043
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Stasevich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Minsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Feb 2043
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Minsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Feb 2043
Goncalo Almeida 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.
Market23 Feb 2043
The phone has started ringing about Petr Coufal again, and this time the name on the line is Baranovichi. Dinamo Minsk are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market23 Feb 2043
Molodechno are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Dinamo Minsk will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market29 Dec 2042
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Dec 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Minsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Dec 2042
Goncalo Almeida 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom1 Dec 2042
They will talk about this season in this town for a long time. The trophy comes home with the squad, and the route is already agreed.
Squad1 Dec 2042
288 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad1 Dec 2042
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Dinamo Minsk have had the benefit of it.
Market1 Dec 2042
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 Dec 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Minsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Dec 2042
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefan Laimer, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Nov 2042
378 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market3 Nov 2042
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Minsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Nov 2042
“The easiest signature of my career.” Federico Matarán and Dinamo Minsk agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Oct 2042
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo Minsk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market13 Oct 2042
Only the photograph left for Petr Coufal
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Petr Coufal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Minsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Oct 2042
Artur Movsesyan 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.
Squad13 Oct 2042
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Anton Ihnatovich commits to Dinamo Minsk for another 4 years.
Squad13 Oct 2042
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.
Boardroom13 Oct 2042
The numbers do not look good at Dinamo Minsk
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match25 Aug 2042
Dinamo Minsk refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 52 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.
Market25 Aug 2042
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad25 Aug 2042
Artur Movsesyan 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.
Squad25 Aug 2042
Words at Dinamo Minsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goncalo Almeida 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.
Squad25 Aug 2042
Filip Taraba 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.
Squad25 Aug 2042
55 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market25 Aug 2042
The phone has started ringing about Patrick Lainer again, and this time the name on the line is Naftan. Dinamo Minsk are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market25 Aug 2042
Baranovichi are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Dinamo Minsk will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Player ratings25 Aug 2042
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match8 Mar 2042
Dinamo Minsk make home a hard place to visit
71 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad10 Mar 2042
A fracture rules Jules Ouaknine out for 87 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Minsk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 Mar 2042
Manuel Pereyra has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Minsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Mar 2042
Santiago Sosa Yung 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.
Squad10 Mar 2042
Words at Dinamo Minsk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goncalo Almeida 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.
Player ratings10 Mar 2042
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match8 Mar 2042
Ostrovets left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom10 Mar 2042
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.
Squad10 Mar 2042
The manager has not finished forgetting Kyrylo Fesiun's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Dec 2041
Artur Movsesyan damages knee ligaments — 70 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
Market30 Dec 2041
Only the photograph left for Luis Vidal
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Vidal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Minsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Dec 2041
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Minsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Dec 2041
Goncalo Almeida 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.
Market30 Dec 2041
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad30 Dec 2041
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
Upbeat
Boardroom2 Dec 2041
They will talk about this season in this town for a long time. The trophy comes home with the squad, and the route is already agreed.
Squad2 Dec 2041
A knee injury of the worst kind for Artur Movsesyan
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Minsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad2 Dec 2041
Kyrylo Fesiun: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Minsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Dec 2041
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Dinamo Minsk have had the benefit of it.
Market2 Dec 2041
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Dinamo Minsk hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market2 Dec 2041
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Minsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Nov 2041
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jules Ouaknine
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Minsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad4 Nov 2041
“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.
Squad4 Nov 2041
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kyrylo Fesiun commits to Dinamo Minsk for another 2 years.
Market4 Nov 2041
Only the photograph left for Luis Vidal
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Vidal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Minsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Nov 2041
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dinamo Minsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market4 Nov 2041
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Minsk heard it as anything else.