Slutsk go through and Slonim go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings8 Apr 2030
Vitaliy Volodko could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.26
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.26, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Tkatsevich 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 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Wesley Van de Beek has his answer from Slonim; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Uni-X Labs? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ivan Ageev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Slonim needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marat Kalinchenko. 3‑1 against Volna Pinsk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
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.
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Slonim are no longer polite ones.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Tkatsevich 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.
Cameron Llewellyn 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Slonim has been clear about where Cameron Llewellyn stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutVitaliy Para knocks on the manager's door
“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 Slonim, and it is not being withdrawn.
10 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Ageev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Orsha held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Slonim answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Somebody 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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mikalai Korzun 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. Stanislau Kislyak 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hleb Gordeichuk 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom25 Feb 2030
Slonim close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 8 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Slonim have done the hard part with Dinamo Minsk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Minsk have kept their man, and Slonim go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Tkatsevich 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Cameron Llewellyn 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slonim know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Bumprom Gomel 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.
Slonim had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Vitebsk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Slonim asked and Dinamo Brest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Tkatsevich 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Vitaliy Volodko 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Raman Pavlov 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mikalai Dragun is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Slonim asked and Dinamo Minsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cameron Llewellyn was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Slonim have made the call to Dinamo Minsk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Slonim have done the hard part with Dinamo Brest, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
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.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Tkatsevich 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ivan Ageev is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Slonim have done the hard part with Dinamo Minsk, 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.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Cameron Llewellyn 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.
Slavia Mozyr 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.
Slonim have made the call to Dinamo Minsk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
Maxim Tkatsevich 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.
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.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cameron Llewellyn 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitaliy Para trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Tkatsevich 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slonim, 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
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. Alexandr Chizh is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Tkatsevich signs something — a contract at Slonim or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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 Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Slonim will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Cameron Llewellyn 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.
“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; Slonim are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raman Laptev 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.
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 Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Tkatsevich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Tkatsevich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Slonim will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cameron Llewellyn 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.
Artem Pavlov 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Tkatsevich signs something — a contract at Slonim or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Slonim could ask drops and the wages Cameron Llewellyn can ask rise.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Tkatsevich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $5.6M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Cameron Llewellyn 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
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.
“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 Slonim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Tkatsevich 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.
Cameron Llewellyn 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Semin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Position 11, 15 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Tkatsevich 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Tkatsevich signs something — a contract at Slonim or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pavel Hryshyn trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Ivan Ageev
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Tkatsevich 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Cameron Llewellyn 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.
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.
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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Slonim can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cameron Llewellyn 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. Slonim know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
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 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.
Maxim Tkatsevich and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Ageev 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitaliy Para trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Tkatsevich signs something — a contract at Slonim or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
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. Alexandr Chizh was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Commercial news is the news nobody sings about and everything else is paid for with. The board will call it a partnership; the accountants will call it the difference between this squad and a smaller one.
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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Tkatsevich 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Alexandr Chizh is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slonim know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Slonim has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Tkatsevich 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.
Position 11 and 15 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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cameron Llewellyn 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Tkatsevich signs something — a contract at Slonim or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Dmitriy Sai
SquadQuestions about Pavel Hryshyn on the training pitch
That is the business done at Slonim 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Tkatsevich 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $5.3M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Cameron Llewellyn 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Wesley Van de Beek has his answer from Slonim; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Slonim opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Vitaliy Kislyak stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Tkatsevich 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 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.
Cameron Llewellyn 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Slonim can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slonim know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
5 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Slonim had all but put away. Lokomotiv Gomel will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
The deal with Dinamo Minsk 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Volna Pinsk is saying, and nobody at Slonim is enjoying the guessing.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Slonim are no longer polite ones.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Tkatsevich 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Aug 2029
5 new faces, and Slonim are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alexandr Chizh scored, was marked 7.39, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Slonim and Uni-X Labs, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ivan Malevich 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. Raman Dragun 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.
0‑3 to Baranovichi, 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Vladimir Bashun is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Artem Arlouski after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torpedo-BelAZ have kept their man, and Slonim go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Tkatsevich 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. Ruslan Martynovich 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. Egor Shikavka 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 Filipenko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kirill Kavalyou 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.
17 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Orsha were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Position 12 and 13 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxim Tkatsevich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Slonim have made the call to Arsenal Dzerzhinsk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
0‑3 to Lida, 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.
The deal with Dinamo Brest 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.
Slonim had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at BATE, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Slonim had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at BATE, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Nikita Chuyko 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.
Slonim asked and Dinamo Minsk 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 Maxim Tkatsevich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
15 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The deal with Dinamo Minsk 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.
Slonim had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Brest, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Artur Chuyko 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.
Position 12 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.
Everything agreed with Dinamo Minsk, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: BATE keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Slonim asked and Bumprom Gomel 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Slonim have made the call to Arsenal Dzerzhinsk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nikita Chuyko’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Slonim needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Tkatsevich signs something — a contract at Slonim or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Everything agreed with Slavia Mozyr, 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 Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
A mark of 7.60, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Artem Arlouski chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Maxim Tkatsevich 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.
Minute 91, against Osipovichi, 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Nobody at Slonim will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The 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.
Artur Chuyko 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.
Half the programme played, position 12, 7 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Slutsk.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Marked 8.02 — 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Artur Chuyko 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Artem Arlouski after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Artur Chuyko 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.
Nobody at Slonim will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nikita Chuyko 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
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 Artem Arlouski left the room before anybody could ask which.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Maxim Tkatsevich and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Ivan Semin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $4.5M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Level with 92 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Slonim had all but put away. Orsha will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Artem Arlouski chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
5 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 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.
Artur Chuyko 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 dugout16 Apr 2029
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Artem Arlouski to a room that had heard them before.
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 Artur Chuyko is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slonim will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
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.
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Marat Kalinchenko scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Niva, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Artem Arlouski to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nikita Chuyko’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Slonim needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dmitriy Sai signs something — a contract at Slonim or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Slonim lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Slonim and Belshina, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Slonim deserved better, and so did he.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Artur Chuyko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Artem Arlouski, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Every debut is a small story about the future: Uladzislau Balanovich, 17 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
Slonim had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at BATE, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Maxim Tkatsevich 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Egor Kavalyou 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.
A date was given and it came and went. Nobody upstairs will call it a broken promise, and nobody downstairs will call it anything else for a long time.
That is the business done at Slonim 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $4.2M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Artur Chuyko 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dmitriy Sai signs something — a contract at Slonim or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Slonim spent the window trying to move Nikita Chuyko on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for 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 Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
The deal with Dinamo Brest 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.
Slonim asked and Dinamo Brest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The 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.
Artur Chuyko 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Slonim have done the hard part with Dinamo Minsk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Slonim have made the call to Dinamo Minsk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Slonim have made the call to Dinamo Brest. 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 dugoutVitaliy Para knocks on the manager's door
“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 Slonim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Bumprom Gomel, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at BATE is saying, and nobody at Slonim is enjoying the guessing.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Minsk have kept their man, and Slonim 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 Nikita Chuyko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
The deal with Dinamo Minsk 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dmitriy Sai signs something — a contract at Slonim 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.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Slonim would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Slonim told Artur Chuyko something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Slonim would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Dmitriy Sai’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Artem Arlouski has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Hleb Nekhaichik is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Slonim could ask drops and the wages Dmitriy Vechorko can ask rise.
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 Slonim would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Vitaliy Kislyak's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Slonim told Dzmitry Korzun something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dmitriy Sai signs something — a contract at Slonim or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Slonim would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Viktar Laptev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Yahor Pavlov on the training pitch
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Ivan Furmanov
Dmitriy Vechorko 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 shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dmitriy Sai signs something — a contract at Slonim or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Slonim, and it is not being withdrawn.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Slonim will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
A few words of the language, a friend at the next peg, and a training ground that has stopped feeling foreign. Nothing measurable, and everything visible on Saturdays.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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 shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dmitriy Sai signs something — a contract at Slonim or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Maxim Tkatsevich’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slonim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Artur Chuyko is on it.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Eduard Volodko on the training pitch
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Dmitriy Sai
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pavel Hryshyn trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Nikita Chuyko has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
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.
“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 Slonim, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slonim have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Ivan Furmanov 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 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 change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Maxim Tkatsevich's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrei Pavlov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitaliy Para trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Slonim had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Brest, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Slonim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Chuyko 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitaliy Para trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Slonim opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Ivan Furmanov stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Dmitriy Vechorko’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Maxim Belyaev are not good
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.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at Slonim 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Slonim have done the hard part with Dinamo Brest, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Slavia Mozyr 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slonim, 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 Slonim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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 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.
Dinamo Minsk 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikita Chuyko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maxim Tkatsevich signs something — a contract at Slonim or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutArtur Chuyko has become a man the manager trusts
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Slonim asked and Dinamo Minsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Artem Arlouski could afford to be generous.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Dinamo Brest 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.
Maxim Tkatsevich 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. Bumprom Gomel have kept their man, and Slonim go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Niva had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Slavia Mozyr is saying, and nobody at Slonim is enjoying the guessing.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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.
Slonim asked and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk 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 Nikita Chuyko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
0‑3 against Molodechno, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The deal with Slavia Mozyr 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.
Slonim had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at BATE, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arsenal Dzerzhinsk have kept their man, and Slonim go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal with BATE 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.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Orsha were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Marked 7.88. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Slonim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slonim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Slonim have done the hard part with Bumprom Gomel, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Brest is saying, and nobody at Slonim is enjoying the guessing.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Ivan Bykau 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. Hleb Nekhaichik is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
5 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.
Slonim had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at BATE, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Uladzimir Hryshyn will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slonim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at BATE is saying, and nobody at Slonim is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yahor Sivakov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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 Slonim, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Slonim is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Everything agreed with Dinamo Minsk, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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 Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Artem Arlouski after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Slonim have made the call to Dinamo Minsk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“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 Slonim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Uladzimir Hryshyn will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slonim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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 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 dugout12 Jun 2028
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 Artem Arlouski to a room that had heard them before.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ilya Lebedev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slonim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slonim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Position 7, 18 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slonim can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denis Miskevich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slonim the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Artem Arlouski could afford to be generous.
“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 Slonim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Slonim they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Dmitriy Vechorko 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 squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nikita Chuyko’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Slonim needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dmitriy Sai signs something — a contract at Slonim 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. Slonim have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.