Marked for Daniil Marugin
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Oct 2027
“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.
Market4 Oct 2027
Only the photograph left for Nikolay Bochko
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikolay Bochko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A falling-out at BATE
Rafał Mamla and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nikita Karmaev commits to BATE for another 4 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at BATE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Podstrelov 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 ratings4 Oct 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.01, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match2 Oct 2027
Late, late show earns BATE a point
Minute 92, against Dinamo Minsk, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Rafał Mamla wants out of the dugout
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and BATE will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The team sheet said everything about Daniil Marugin
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 Daniil Marugin.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 May 2027
Nobody wants to play BATE right now
9 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Market24 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Nikolay Bochko
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikolay Bochko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match22 May 2027
BATE keep winning on the road
5 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad24 May 2027
Words exchanged at BATE
Nino Marcelli 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.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 May 2027
A row about effort at BATE
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jubal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match22 May 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nino Marcelli. 1‑0 against Naftan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Looking ahead24 May 2027
The big one: Dinamo Brest come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. BATE will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Daniil Marugin
“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
Upbeat
Match20 Mar 2027
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Nino Marcelli, 21, steals the show — 8.37
Marked 8.37 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.87, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at BATE
Andrey Ivlev 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 terraces22 Mar 2027
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A row about effort at BATE
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuriy Kovalev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Baranovichi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at BATE is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
$3.6M on the table at Sochi. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market22 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what BATE can pretend not to have heard.
Market22 Feb 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around BATE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $81.7K — a club that wants Ilya Tishurov enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
BATE had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at BATE
Nino Marcelli 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.
Market22 Feb 2027
BATE get their man
The chase for Ilya Tishurov ended with $77.0K changing hands and Osipovichi out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match11 Jan 2027
BATE up to position 2
22 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BATE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nino Marcelli, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Daniil Marugin 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 dugout11 Jan 2027
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
Squad21 Dec 2026
A falling-out at BATE
Nino Marcelli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Daniil Marugin 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
Yan Shumskiy gets picked when it counts
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 Yan Shumskiy is on it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at BATE, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at BATE. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The penny has dropped for Andrey Ivlev
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at BATE the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
BATE book their European place
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
Market30 Nov 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kirill Kaplenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Tempers go at BATE
Yuriy Kovalev 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at BATE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Marugin 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nikita Neskoromnyi and BATE agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Artem Rakhmanov
“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
Upbeat
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.
Market9 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around BATE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Artem Dzyuba 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 BATE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at BATE training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Marugin 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Maxim Telesh commits to BATE for another 4 years.
Squad9 Nov 2026
BATE are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Market9 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at BATE, another week without a signature from Egor Kress.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Pavel Dubovskiy has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at BATE 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
Kirill Kaplenko asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Oct 2026
BATE are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 22 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ivan Mikhnyuk is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Andrey Ivlev 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 BATE this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at BATE
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniil Marugin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yan Shumskiy and BATE agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Sep 2026
5‑0, and Nino Marcelli took the headlines on an afternoon when everything BATE tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad28 Sep 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Nino Marcelli at 21 — 8.22
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nino Marcelli did not need any: 8.22, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Artem Dzyuba yet — 7.93
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market28 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BATE is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match26 Sep 2026
BATE cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at BATE
Artem Dzyuba 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 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dukla Prague have kept their man, and BATE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around BATE they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Vadim Konyukhov gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vadim Konyukhov has just signed for BATE, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at BATE
Andrey Ivlev 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at BATE
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuriy Kovalev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. BATE know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Dukla Prague have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A loan enquiry to Slovan Bratislava: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.