Administrators in the building, 9 points off the table, and a squad that cannot be added to. The football will carry on; the club it was played for has, for the moment, been taken out of its own hands.
The words a physio says slowly. 124 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bumprom Gomel is running low.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Paul Hughes did not need any: 8.09, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Artem Miroevskiy and Bumprom Gomel agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad4 Jul 2033
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Makushinskiy 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 words a physio says slowly. 133 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.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Ostrovets the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Bumprom Gomel will enjoy reviewing.
“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 The request is on a desk at Bumprom Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sino Absamadov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
141 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bumprom Gomel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces20 Jun 2033
The mood at Bumprom Gomel has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bumprom Gomel can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bumprom Gomel have done the hard part with Minsk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Lorenzo Santarelli 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.
Squad20 Jun 2033
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Makushinskiy 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. BATE have kept their man, and Bumprom Gomel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bumprom Gomel has been clear about where Denis Zakharov stands, which is more than many ever get.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Paul Hughes did not need any: 8.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Bumprom Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Artem Miroevskiy 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 Yaroslav Makushinskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 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.
Marked 8.57 — 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
A year of somebody else signing off every invoice ends this week. The books are smaller, the squad is smaller, and for the first time since it began the club is allowed to plan.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Egor Martynovich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bumprom Gomel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ivan Bachauskas and Bumprom Gomel agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
Squad6 Jun 2033
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sino Absamadov 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 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.
A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout30 May 2033
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Joshua Mitchell left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bumprom Gomel can pretend not to have heard.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 May 2033
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Makushinskiy 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Grzegorz Blaszczykowski 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Joshua Mitchell on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“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 Bumprom Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel 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 Sino Absamadov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pavel Malevich. 1‑0 against Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Marked 7.69. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout16 May 2033
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.” Joshua Mitchell kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
“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 Bumprom Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bumprom Gomel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sino Absamadov and Bumprom Gomel agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Artem Miroevskiy 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 Yaroslav Makushinskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom9 May 2033
196% of the income goes out in wages at Bumprom Gomel
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
“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 Bumprom Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sino Absamadov and Bumprom Gomel agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Stanislav Kendysh 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 Yaroslav Makushinskiy 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 Lorenzo Santarelli, and the manager let it.
The dugout2 May 2033
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Joshua Mitchell to a room that had heard them before.
The mood at Bumprom Gomel has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Bumprom Gomel know 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 Bumprom Gomel 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 Sino Absamadov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout25 Apr 2033
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Joshua Mitchell to a room that had heard them before.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Artem Miroevskiy 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: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Apr 2033
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Makushinskiy 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.
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.
Minsk go through and Bumprom Gomel go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Egor Martynovich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bumprom Gomel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
Squad11 Apr 2033
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Makushinskiy 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.
Boardroom11 Apr 2033
164% of the income goes out in wages at Bumprom Gomel
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
22 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.
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.
“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 Bumprom Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sino Absamadov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The run now stands at 21, and the questions being asked around Bumprom Gomel are no longer polite ones.
The terraces28 Mar 2033
The mood at Bumprom Gomel has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Lorenzo Santarelli 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.
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Yaroslav Makushinskiy is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
Squad21 Mar 2033
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Makushinskiy 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 list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Egor Martynovich may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bumprom Gomel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Bumprom Gomel would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
20 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bumprom Gomel can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bumprom Gomel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Egor Martynovich has agreed terms with Orsha 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 Bumprom Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
13 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sino Absamadov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Mikalai Shikavka clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yaroslav Makushinskiy and Bumprom Gomel agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Makushinskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The mood at Bumprom Gomel has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom28 Feb 2033
Bumprom Gomel close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 10 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sino Absamadov signs something — a contract at Bumprom Gomel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Bumprom Gomel have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Bumprom Gomel know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bumprom Gomel can pretend not to have heard.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
Bumprom Gomel asked and Uni-X Labs 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 manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Bachauskas, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Feb 2033
Nazar Chizh 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bumprom Gomel, another week without a signature from Maksim Signevich.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bumprom Gomel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bumprom Gomel is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bumprom Gomel can pretend not to have heard.
Bumprom Gomel had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Arsenal Dzerzhinsk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Maksim Signevich is a Bumprom Gomel player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Lorenzo Santarelli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Feb 2033
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Makushinskiy 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.
Bumprom Gomel asked and BATE said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mikalai Palitsevich 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sergei Filipenko 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.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 136% of everything Bumprom Gomel earn
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Pavel Malevich
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bumprom Gomel can pretend not to have heard.
Ivan Bachauskas 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 Feb 2033
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Makushinskiy 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.
Bumprom Gomel asked and BATE 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Denis Zakharov has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel 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 Sino Absamadov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Bumprom Gomel are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Bumprom Gomel have made the call to Torpedo-BelAZ. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The dugoutLorenzo Rubino asks for a word with the manager
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Makushinskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Bumprom Gomel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel 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 Yaroslav Makushinskiy 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bumprom Gomel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bumprom Gomel 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 Bumprom Gomel can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sino Absamadov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
BoardroomThe Bumprom Gomel production line keeps running
336Edition
The Bumprom Gomel Herald
3 Jan 2033
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces3 Jan 2033
The mood at Bumprom Gomel has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bumprom Gomel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Stanislav Kendysh 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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Denis Zakharov is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bumprom Gomel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Danila Firsov 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bumprom Gomel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Boardroom20 Dec 2032
160% of the income goes out in wages at Bumprom Gomel
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Bumprom Gomel will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Stanislav Kendysh was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad13 Dec 2032
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Makushinskiy 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Artem Miroevskiy and Bumprom Gomel agree another 2 years.
Stanislav Kendysh 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.
Squad6 Dec 2032
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Makushinskiy 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sino Absamadov signs something — a contract at Bumprom Gomel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutPavel Pavlov asks for a word with the manager
Artem Miroevskiy 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Makushinskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 170% of everything Bumprom Gomel earn
“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 Bumprom Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Stanislav Kendysh 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Artem Miroevskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Nazar Chizh 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 trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Bumprom Gomel has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
The dugoutNazar Chizh asks for a word with the manager
Artem Miroevskiy 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 Yaroslav Makushinskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bumprom Gomel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Bumprom Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Stanislav Kendysh 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.
Squad18 Oct 2032
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sino Absamadov 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 spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Anton Korzun is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mikalai Martynovich 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vitaliy Bykau is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Bachauskas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Stanislav Kendysh 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 Yaroslav Makushinskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bumprom Gomel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Artem Miroevskiy 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 Yaroslav Makushinskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Bumprom Gomel know it.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Denis Zakharov was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sino Absamadov 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 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bumprom Gomel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Lorenzo Santarelli 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 Yaroslav Makushinskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Uladzimir Volodko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market20 Sep 2032
The window shut and Pavel Pavlov is still in the building
Bumprom Gomel spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Bumprom Gomel and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom13 Sep 2032
Bumprom Gomel close the window on a squad of their own making
21 in and 24 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Ivan Bachauskas 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.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Makushinskiy 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.
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 Bumprom Gomel would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Slutsk keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Artem Miroevskiy 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Anton Dragun is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
18 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.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bumprom Gomel have done the hard part with Torpedo-BelAZ, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Bumprom Gomel asked and Uni-X Labs said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Position 12 and 1 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Denis Zakharov provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Stanislav Kendysh 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: 20. 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 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bumprom Gomel have done the hard part with Smorgon, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Stanislav Kendysh 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 Artem Miroevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vitebsk have kept their man, and Bumprom Gomel 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 Bumprom Gomel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bumprom Gomel can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Slutsk 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yaroslav Makushinskiy and Bumprom Gomel agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
14 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bumprom Gomel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yaroslav Makushinskiy and Bumprom Gomel agree another 2 years.
Danila Firsov 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.
Bumprom Gomel asked and BATE 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 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 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.
13 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.
Position 13 and 0 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bumprom Gomel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Stanislav Kendysh 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.
Bumprom Gomel asked and Baranovichi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Miroevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
12 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 Bumprom Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Dinamo Brest, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Ivan Bachauskas 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.
11 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bumprom Gomel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Everything agreed with Torpedo-BelAZ, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Miroevskiy 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.
10 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 109 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mikalai Shikavka has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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.
Stanislav Kendysh and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 2032
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Miroevskiy 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2032
175% of the income goes out in wages at Bumprom Gomel
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bumprom Gomel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 13 and 0 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
9 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bumprom Gomel 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 Bumprom Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andrei Hleb 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Egor Kavalyou is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hleb Chalavach is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Stanislav Kendysh 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Uni-X Labs have kept their man, and Bumprom Gomel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jun 2032
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Miroevskiy 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Artem Miroevskiy signs something — a contract at Bumprom Gomel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A month in which every rumour is possible and most of them are nonsense. The manager has a list, the board has a number, and neither is telling the other the whole of it.
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 Dragun is on it.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bumprom Gomel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match12 Jun 2032
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Bumprom Gomel and Smorgon in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Danila Firsov 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.
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Miroevskiy 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 club is in the hands of administrators, 9 points have gone off the table, and no signing may be made until further notice. Everything this season was about was decided in a room nobody from the ground was sitting in.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bumprom Gomel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Danila Firsov and Bumprom Gomel agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Danila Firsov 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 gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
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.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bumprom Gomel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
6 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.
Ivan Bachauskas 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 Artem Miroevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 88, against Orsha, 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $6.6M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bumprom Gomel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces24 May 2032
The mood at Bumprom Gomel has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
0‑7 against Lokomotiv Gomel, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Stanislav Kendysh 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Bumprom Gomel and Lokomotiv Gomel, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
4 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.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
“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.
The dugout17 May 2032
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Mikalai Shikavka left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Bachauskas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
SquadIhar Chalavach falls out with a teammate over standards
59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bumprom Gomel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Miroevskiy 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.
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
The dugout10 May 2032
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Mikalai Shikavka left the room before anybody could ask which.
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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 supervision ends, the embargo lifts, and a chairman may sign a cheque without asking anybody. It has taken a year and it has cost a squad, and this is still the best boardroom morning the club has had in that year.
Position 11 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Artem Miroevskiy and Bumprom Gomel agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Stanislav Kendysh 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $6.5M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 13 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bumprom Gomel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Mikalai Shikavka to a room that had heard them before.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Artem Miroevskiy signs something — a contract at Bumprom Gomel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
80 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bumprom Gomel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Bumprom Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 16 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Anton Dragun did not need any: 8.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Anton Dragun. 2‑1 against Osipovichi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 16 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.
87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bumprom Gomel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 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.
“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.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Mikalai Shikavka left the room before anybody could ask which.
The words a physio says slowly. 94 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
1-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bumprom Gomel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces29 Mar 2032
The mood at Bumprom Gomel has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
0‑3 to Niva, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Stanislav Kendysh 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.
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bumprom Gomel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel 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 Artem Miroevskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bumprom Gomel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bumprom Gomel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
115 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bumprom Gomel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sino Absamadov 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 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bumprom Gomel has been clear about where Maksim Signevich stands, which is more than many ever get.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Mikalai Shikavka left the room before anybody could ask which.
The words a physio says slowly. 122 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sino Absamadov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dzmitry Kendysh 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.
129 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bumprom Gomel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom1 Mar 2032
Bumprom Gomel close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
Molodechno next, and one man in the Bumprom Gomel dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bumprom Gomel. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 136 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 Bumprom Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Lorenzo Santarelli 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Egor Martynovich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Bumprom Gomel could ask drops and the wages Mikhail Kazimir can ask rise.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
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.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Uni-X Labs have kept their man, and Bumprom Gomel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sino Absamadov 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.
Boardroom9 Feb 2032
150% of the income goes out in wages at Bumprom Gomel
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Raman Savitski is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Artem Nekhaichik 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vitaliy Hleb 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bumprom Gomel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bumprom Gomel 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 Bumprom Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bumprom Gomel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Position 11 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 Bumprom Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Egor Martynovich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A month in which every rumour is possible and most of them are nonsense. The manager has a list, the board has a number, and neither is telling the other the whole of it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bumprom Gomel. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bumprom Gomel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom19 Jan 2032
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Bumprom Gomel
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sino Absamadov 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 manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sino Absamadov 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.
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.
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 Firsov has written the date down.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Bumprom Gomel could ask drops and the wages Maksim Signevich can ask rise.
In brief
The dugoutRaman Kendysh knocks on the manager’s door
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bumprom Gomel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces5 Jan 2032
The mood at Bumprom Gomel has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mikalai Shikavka has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Ivan Veras was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bumprom Gomel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bumprom Gomel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 11 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 Bumprom Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bumprom Gomel. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
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 Firsov has written the date down.
76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bumprom Gomel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
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 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.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bumprom Gomel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces8 Dec 2031
The mood at Bumprom Gomel has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bumprom Gomel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bumprom Gomel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Bumprom Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
The words a physio says slowly. 97 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bumprom Gomel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom24 Nov 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Bumprom Gomel
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Egor Martynovich 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 manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Bumprom Gomel could ask drops and the wages Mikhail Kazimir can ask rise.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bumprom Gomel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 104 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bumprom Gomel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel 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 Sino Absamadov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom17 Nov 2031
149% of the income goes out in wages at Bumprom Gomel
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Bumprom Gomel told Maksim Signevich something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bumprom Gomel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bumprom Gomel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Artem Miroevskiy 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 Sino Absamadov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 118 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.
Yaroslav Makushinskiy 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Bumprom Gomel could ask drops and the wages Mikhail Kazimir can ask rise.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ihar Hryshyn trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
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.
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 Firsov has written the date down.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Pavel Pavlov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Eduard Arlouski is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ihar Chalavach is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yan Kislyak is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Artem Miroevskiy and Bumprom Gomel agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Lorenzo Santarelli 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 Sino Absamadov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Ivan Veras is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Yaroslav Makushinskiy may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bumprom Gomel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom29 Sep 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Bumprom Gomel
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Egor Martynovich 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.
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Bumprom Gomel could ask drops and the wages Mikhail Kazimir can ask rise.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bumprom Gomel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
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.
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 Firsov has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutAnton Dragun asks for a word with the manager
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bumprom Gomel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Bumprom Gomel will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Artem Miroevskiy 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 Sino Absamadov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bumprom Gomel know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom8 Sep 2031
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 23 gone
That is the business done at Bumprom Gomel 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sino Absamadov 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. Anton Dragun is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Raman Kendysh is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yan Shikavka 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bumprom Gomel is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bumprom Gomel 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. Uni-X Labs have kept their man, and Bumprom Gomel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nazar Chizh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Bumprom Gomel than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yauhen Noyok did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Uni-X Labs have kept their man, and Bumprom Gomel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sino Absamadov 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 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.
At 17 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Artem Miroevskiy 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Bumprom Gomel asked and Vitebsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Words at Bumprom Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sino Absamadov 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.
Position 13 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
0‑3 to Niva, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Egor Martynovich 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Minsk have kept their man, and Bumprom Gomel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sino Absamadov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom11 Aug 2031
Nobody left the Bumprom Gomel dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Lorenzo Santarelli knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Lorenzo Santarelli's mistake