7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Steven Alfred 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 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Torpedo-BelAZ, and 3 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
The words a physio says slowly. 95 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.
Steven Alfred 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Vadim Kiselev has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Three points for Torpedo-BelAZ, 1‑0 the final word against Molodechno in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Igor Zayats 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo-BelAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torpedo-BelAZ is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo-BelAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Danila Zhulpa 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.
“I watch every Torpedo-BelAZ game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Molodechno runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Slavia Mozyr had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Torpedo-BelAZ did not stop to explain themselves.
Vadim Pobudey 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Nikolai Alho 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo-BelAZ can pretend not to have heard.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Torpedo-BelAZ are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Vadim Pobudey 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Nikolai Alho 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Torpedo-BelAZ know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Torpedo-BelAZ, another week without a signature from Nikolay Leshkevich.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo-BelAZ can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo-BelAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Torpedo-BelAZ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolai Alho 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.
Add another name to the list: Lida have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mikhail Ladutsko. The answer from Torpedo-BelAZ has not changed — yet.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Torpedo-BelAZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo-BelAZ can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo-BelAZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Torpedo-BelAZ training over how hard people work
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo-BelAZ have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Vadim Pobudey 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Nikolai Alho 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.