19 Sep 2026
Saturday
Process
7 Edition

The Gomel Chronicle

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

No end in sight to Gomel's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Gomel has to find a result from somewhere.

Boardroom

Gomel close the window on a squad of their own making

16 in and 3 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.

Transfer targets

Matvii Ponomarenko turns down Gomel

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dynamo Kyiv keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Boardroom

Alexandr Rakhmatov has agreed to leave Gomel for nothing

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.

Transfer targets

Nikita Vekhtev stays at Vitebsk as time runs out

A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Gomel will try again when the window opens; Vitebsk may not be selling by then.

Market

Gomel promote Eduard Balanovich from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Eduard Balanovich 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.

Market

Gomel promote Vitaliy Gordeichuk from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vitaliy Gordeichuk 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.

Squad

Vladislav Lazarev 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.

Match

Gomel rescue it on 91 minutes

Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Isloch had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.

In brief

Back issues
6 Edition

The Gomel Chronicle

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Slutsk punish Gomel for switching off

2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Alexandr Savitskiy will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Gomel escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.

Market

Artem Polushko has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Gomel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Match

4 matches without a win for Gomel

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Gomel are no longer polite ones.

Boardroom

Gomel to lose Artem Polushko for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Artem Polushko has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.

Transfer targets

Gomel make their move for Nikita Vekhtev

$400.0K on the table at Vitebsk. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Evgeniy Barsukov

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

A row about effort at Gomel

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Timofey Simanenka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Rudes tell Gomel: Duje Korač is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Match

Gomel are shipping goals every week

Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.

In brief

5 Edition

The Gomel Chronicle

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Egor Troyakov puts it in writing

“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 Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Slavia Mozyr come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Gomel did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Transfer targets

Fon Boris Kache turns down Gomel

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: PWD Bamenda keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Boardroom

Danila Kalatsey has agreed to leave Gomel for nothing

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.

Market

Danila Kalatsey has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Gomel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Denis Laptev in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Momodou Jobarteh

Gomel asked and Paide said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Timofey Simanenka 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.

Transfer targets

Gomel ask about Anton Shamonin

A loan enquiry to Rostov: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

In brief

4 Edition

The Gomel Chronicle

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Gomel out of the cup

Dnepr Mogilev ended it 2‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.

Player ratings

A brace, and Dmitriy Emeljanov takes the afternoon — 8.46

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dmitriy Emeljanov provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Player ratings

Gleb Protasenya, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62

A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Market

Anton Semenov hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gomel can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings

Daniil Silinskiy goes up and wins it — 7.87

A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.87 for the rest of it.

Squad

A falling-out at Gomel

Denis Laptev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Evgeniy Barsukov

Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Mateo Bačić

Gomel asked and Cibalia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Match

A bad afternoon for Gomel against BATE

1‑2 to BATE, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

In brief

  • Squad Words at Gomel training over how hard people work
  • The dugout The manager makes an example of Kirill Burov
  • Boardroom Doors closed at Gomel
3 Edition

The Gomel Chronicle

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Gomel march on in the cup

Niva are out and Gomel go through, 3‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.

Player ratings

Anton Semenov scores twice — 9.14

Two goals and a mark of 9.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

Vintage Denis Laptev — 8.09

At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.09, and nobody on the pitch better.

Player ratings

Vadim Martinkevich beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Words exchanged at Gomel

Denis Laptev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Transfer targets

Gomel rebuffed over Marko Čavara

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. ND Gorica have kept their man, and Gomel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

Gomel come up short against Slavia Mozyr

Slavia Mozyr left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The terraces

One of their own: Dmitriy Emeljanov

He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.

The dugout

Stanislav Kleschuk gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

In brief

2 Edition

The Gomel Chronicle

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

Timofey Simanenka, 19, steals the show — 7.95

Marked 7.95 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.

Transfer targets

Alexandr Ryzhchenko due for a Gomel medical

Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Transfer targets

Anton Shamonin will not be coming to Gomel

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Rostov is saying, and nobody at Gomel is enjoying the guessing.

Player ratings

Vadim Martinkevich beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Denis Laptev in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

Dmitriy Nizhnik will join Gomel for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Dmitriy Nizhnik has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Gomel have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.

Transfer targets

Rudes tell Gomel: Duje Korač is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Market

One of our own: Yahor Malevich joins the Gomel first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yahor Malevich is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Market

One of our own: Vitaliy Rios joins the Gomel first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vitaliy Rios is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

In brief

1 Edition

The Gomel Chronicle

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

Anton Semenov, 21, steals the show — 8.14

Marked 8.14 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.

Squad

A career in one shirt: Oleg Kovalev

12 seasons and 245 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.

Market

Gomel say no — this time

The offer from Khimik for Damir Shaikhtdinov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Player ratings

Vadim Martinkevich runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Daniil Silinskiy signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniil Silinskiy commits to Gomel for another 4 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Gomel

Denis Laptev 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.

Transfer targets

Slavia Sofia tell Gomel: Yoan Bornosuzov is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Match

Timofey Simanenka sends Gomel past Molodechno

It finished 2‑1, and it was Timofey Simanenka’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Gomel.

The terraces

Gomel supporters have found a favourite in Vadim Martinkevich

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Vadim Martinkevich has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.

In brief