“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” BATE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Arsen Adamov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Florjan Jevšenak 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.
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.
Arsen Adamov 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 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 training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
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.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. BATE would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Florjan Jevšenak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Nikita Kakkoev is on it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at BATE would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” BATE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Florjan Jevšenak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Something was said to Vladislav Yatskevich and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” BATE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Varaksa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Arsen Adamov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Florjan Jevšenak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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 BATE know it.
Arsen Adamov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Florjan Jevšenak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Mikhnyuk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mikhail Kozakevich has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Florjan Jevšenak 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. BATE told Florjan Jevšenak something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 Nikita Kakkoev is on it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Florjan Jevšenak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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 Arsen Adamov is on it.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 98th minute. Naftan will replay every second of the added time for a week.
12 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.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
Arsen Adamov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Florjan Jevšenak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Naftan moved on, Danila Sokol reports back to BATE, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Nikita Kakkoev 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Florjan Jevšenak 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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Bumprom Gomel had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Florjan Jevšenak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Alfred Mazurich 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.
In brief
Looking aheadThe big one: Dinamo Minsk come into view
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Florjan Jevšenak 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.
BATE asked and KAA Gent said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
In brief
Boardroom86% of the income goes out in wages at BATE
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason BATE will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Nikita Kakkoev 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.
10 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.
Something was said to Alexandr Zhirov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at BATE pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around BATE people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Alexandr Zhirov 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 phone has started ringing about Yan Shumskiy again, and this time the name on the line is Osipovichi. BATE are listening politely and promising nothing.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. BATE will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Naftan waiting with a shirt. Nobody at BATE is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nikita Neskoromnyi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kirill Kaplenko scored, was marked 7.82, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Osipovichi had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Martin Artyukh has, at BATE, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The fee is $600.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Baranovichi drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. BATE will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.71, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match28 Jul 2027
Egor Grivenev wins it after the whistle should have gone
118 minutes played. Egor Grivenev found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Dnepr Mogilev went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. BATE have lost him in all but the paperwork.
$8.2M on the table at Akhmat Grozny. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kirill Kaplenko scored, was marked 7.91, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikita Neskoromnyi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Position 2, 38 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Bumprom Gomel had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The deal with Dnepr Mogilev 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.
BATE had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at NK Celje, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The chase for Maksym Shevchenko ended with $230.0K changing hands and Baranovichi out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Besiktas have kept their man, and BATE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason BATE will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Stanislav Stefanovich has just signed for BATE, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
$840.0K was the most the club would pay and Lida were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and BATE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” BATE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Dinamo Minsk for Nikita Neskoromnyi 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.
BATE have gone to Lida with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
BATE had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lumezzane, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around BATE people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The fee is $970.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lida drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
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.
Nikita Kakkoev 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason BATE will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. BATE have lost him in all but the paperwork.
BATE and Lida have settled on $970.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
A mark of 8.10 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
5 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.
“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.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at BATE can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
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 Juan Moreno is on it.
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.
Nikita Kakkoev 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kirill Tsepenkov. 1‑0 against Dinamo Minsk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
3 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Uni-X Labs spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Marked 8.30 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Slavia Mozyr had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and BATE did not stop to explain themselves.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.32 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Nikita Kakkoev 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Gordeychuk 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.
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.
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.
He is 22 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.
Marked 8.36 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Suchkov 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kirill Arlouski after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Nikita Kakkoev 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Gordeychuk 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” BATE have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nikita Kakkoev 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 first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Minsk; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at BATE training over how hard people work
5 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikita Neskoromnyi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
8.68. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Dnepr Mogilev spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Suchkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Kirill Arlouski on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.79 for the rest of it.
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.
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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match17 Apr 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for BATE. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikhail Gordeychuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.15 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutJuan Moreno has become a man the manager trusts
3 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.
“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 BATE know it.
Nikita Kakkoev 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Kirill Arlouski kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
Alexandr Zhirov 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.
8.84. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It is the quietest kind of dressing-room problem and the one that lasts longest, because nobody has done anything anyone can be disciplined for. 3 players sit outside all 4 groups entirely, which is the detail that tends to matter.
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.
Successful dribbles: 46. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noah Saviolo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danila Sokol, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Kirill Arlouski kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
The dugoutYuriy Kovalev has become a man the manager trusts
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Saviolo 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.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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 Juan Moreno is on it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Maxim Kunskiy’s exile
Nikita Kakkoev 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noah Saviolo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
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 Noah Saviolo is on it.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. BATE lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vladislav Yatskevich provided it, and the 9.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
A brace, and Noah Saviolo takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Noah Saviolo provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around BATE people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Makhachkala have kept their man, and BATE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at BATE until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
BATE ran out of time with Fakel. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
“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 BATE, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Noah Saviolo 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 phone has started ringing about Alexandr Shvedchikov again, and this time the name on the line is Niva. BATE are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Slonim waiting with a shirt. Nobody at BATE is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Nizhniy Novgorod did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $3.8M for Nikita Kakkoev, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The offer went to Fakel this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Kirill Tsepenkov has, at BATE, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Alexandr Zhirov 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.
Nikita Kakkoev was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $3.8M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
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.
“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.
$3.8M on the table at Nizhniy Novgorod. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
BATE asked and Rodina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
BATE have gone to Dnepr Mogilev with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at BATE can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Juan Moreno 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noah Saviolo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around BATE people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deal with Neman 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noah Saviolo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
BATE asked and Dinamo Brest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Nikita Neskoromnyi again, and this time the name on the line is Niva. BATE are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Saviolo 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.
Squads form friendships and that is healthy; this is not that. 5 separate groups, 4 players belonging to none of them, and a set of tables at lunch that have stopped rearranging themselves. It very rarely fixes itself.
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 Juan Moreno is on it.
The offer from Trakai for Arseniy Skopets 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.
Juan Moreno 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Noah Saviolo 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.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Danila Sokol has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexandr Shvedchikov signs something — a contract at BATE or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Alexandr Zhirov plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
The offer from Spartaks for Denis Shpakovskiy 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.
Juan Moreno 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Saviolo 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Aliaksandr Yablonski has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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 Vladislav Yatskevich is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Danila Sokol has written the date down.
The shirt still fits. Mikhail Gordeychuk is back at BATE, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Noah Saviolo 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 doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. BATE will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Nikolay Mirskiy is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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 Yuriy Kovalev is on it.
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Noah Saviolo 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.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Danila Sokol has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Suchkov 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.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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.
Juan Moreno 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Denis Shpakovskiy has, at BATE, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noah Saviolo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Raman Hryshyn is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. BATE will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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; BATE are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kirill Kaplenko commits to BATE for another 3 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Noah Saviolo 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.
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 Yuriy Kovalev is on it.
7 goals in 18 games at Saturn — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at BATE updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Danila Sokol has written the date down.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. BATE know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Noah Saviolo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Suchkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 11 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
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.
Juan Moreno 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.
Match18 Nov 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for BATE. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Noah Saviolo 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 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.
Juan Moreno 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Saviolo 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.
“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.
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.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at BATE that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilya Raschenya will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Noah Saviolo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Suchkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee BATE could ask drops and the wages Kirill Kaplenko can ask rise.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Saviolo 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.
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.
“I watch every BATE game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Belshina runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
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.
Juan Moreno 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Saviolo 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.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Suchkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
19 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.
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 Anton Kovalev is on it.
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.
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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Maxim Mardas has agreed terms with Naftan for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
“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; BATE are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noah Saviolo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yan Stasevich has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Something was said to Noah Saviolo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noah Saviolo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order BATE prefer.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Kirill Kaplenko has come out of that comparison in the side, and BATE have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
11 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.
93 minutes played. Vladislav Yatskevich found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Minsk went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Suchkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 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.
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.
Alexandr Zhirov 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.
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Noah Saviolo 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.
BATE asked and Rudar Velenje said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
$650.0K was the most the club would pay and Betis were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noah Saviolo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. BATE have done the hard part with MFK Ruzomberok, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The fee is $390.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Neman drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Noah Saviolo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sparta Prague have kept their man, and BATE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Noah Saviolo 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.
7 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.
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$390.0K settles it between the clubs for Anton Suchkov
Neman have accepted the money. What BATE do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Noah Saviolo obliged against Volna Pinsk. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is BATE.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Anton Kovalev takes the afternoon — 8.24
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Anton Kovalev provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Noah Saviolo takes the afternoon — 8.17
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Noah Saviolo provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Yatskevich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BATE the goodbyes have quietly begun.
5 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kirill Polkhovskiy is living that version at BATE, and it tends to show in the first month.
BATE had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lech, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The chase for Kirill Polkhovskiy ended with $100.0K changing hands and Volna Pinsk out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Mozyr have kept their man, and BATE go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. BATE scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Arseniy Skopets had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Juan Moreno is living that version at BATE, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Neftchi keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
3 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Juan Moreno arrives at BATE in a $310.0K statement of intent
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. BATE have paid $310.0K for Juan Moreno, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
BATE offered $820.0K; Dinamo Brest 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.
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. BATE were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 9.60 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A brace, and Noah Saviolo takes the afternoon — 8.02
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Noah Saviolo provided it, and the 8.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The bid was some way short and BATE did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Taras Gagloev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84
A mark of 7.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
BATE have gone to Dinamo Brest with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Kirill Kaplenko has agreed terms with Dinamo Minsk for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
In brief
MatchNoah Saviolo among the goals in a wild afternoon
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Vladislav Yatskevich scored in the 89th minute, Neman had already begun thinking about the journey home, and BATE took the lot.
BATE have gone to La Luz with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danila Sokol was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Vladislav Varaksa 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.