From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Dzmitry Ihnatovich has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market8 Jan 2029
The offer from Al Nasr for Vladislav Fezhenko was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market8 Jan 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Jan 2029
43 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
$42.7K of the owner's money at Uni-X Labs
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.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
The Uni-X Labs debt reaches $5.3M
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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Egor Snapkov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Egor Snapkov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A season on the outside for Dejvi Duro
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Uni-X Labs has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Jan 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saulius Mikoliunas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad1 Jan 2029
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Uni-X Labs would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market1 Jan 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Uni-X Labs know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market1 Jan 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Vladislav Fezhenko may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Dec 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Uni-X Labs
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Uni-X Labs is running low.
Market25 Dec 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad25 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
90% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saulius Mikoliunas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Dec 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Boardroom18 Dec 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Dec 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad11 Dec 2028
73 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Rodrigo Santillán 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 Dec 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The owner puts $39.7K into Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
37 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Martin Ojamaa and Uni-X Labs agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market4 Dec 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
Pressure builds in the Uni-X Labs boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market27 Nov 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Fezhenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market27 Nov 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad27 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
164% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
40 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market20 Nov 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Boardroom20 Nov 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market13 Nov 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad13 Nov 2028
The medical room confirms 102 days on the sidelines for Daniil Podbereznyi, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom13 Nov 2028
The Uni-X Labs debt reaches $5.2M
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market6 Nov 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The owner puts $37.3K into Uni-X Labs
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Uni-X Labs
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market30 Oct 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market30 Oct 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
186% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
41 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Oct 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad23 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom23 Oct 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Oct 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Oct 2028
130 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad16 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Oct 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“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; Uni-X Labs are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
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.
Market2 Oct 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Uni-X Labs
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market2 Oct 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
$34.3K of the owner's money at Uni-X Labs
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.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
176% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
The medical room confirms 69 days on the sidelines for Evgeniy Ermola, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Sep 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom25 Sep 2028
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.
Loan watch25 Sep 2028
“I watch every Uni-X Labs game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gomel runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Sep 2028
Keito Arita hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom18 Sep 2028
The Uni-X Labs debt reaches $5.0M
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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saulius Mikoliunas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market18 Sep 2028
The window shut and Danil Pshenichnikov is still in the building
Uni-X Labs spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
Market18 Sep 2028
The clock does Alen Zoričić’s negotiating for him
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Uni-X Labs could ask drops and the wages Alen Zoričić can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Sep 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad11 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Dejvi Duro knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dejvi Duro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market11 Sep 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Dmitriy Turovets’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad11 Sep 2028
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Uni-X Labs has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market11 Sep 2028
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Simeon Umeh leaves Uni-X Labs the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Sep 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market4 Sep 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad4 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
The owner puts $28.2K into Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stepan Sokolovskiy and Uni-X Labs agree another 4 years.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Wages eat 174% of everything Uni-X Labs earn
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for Uni-X Labs
8 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.
Market28 Aug 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Aug 2028
The phone has started ringing about Simeon Umeh again, and this time the name on the line is Slavia Mozyr. Uni-X Labs are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad28 Aug 2028
The medical room confirms 29 days on the sidelines for Saulius Mikoliunas, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad28 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Aug 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
No signings allowed at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for Uni-X Labs
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.
Market21 Aug 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Simeon Umeh in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Aug 2028
0‑1 to Slutsk, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
Uni-X Labs are $4.8M in the red
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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stepan Sokolovskiy, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Aug 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rodrigo Santillán trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Every debut is a small story about the future: Renat Dadashov, 21 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Aug 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Aug 2028
6 matches without a win for Uni-X Labs
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Uni-X Labs are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Aug 2028
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad14 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Aug 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Mitskevich, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Aug 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Uni-X Labs know it.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Aug 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Aug 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match5 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for Uni-X Labs
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.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Simeon Umeh in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
The owner puts $17.7K into Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
The medical room confirms 126 days on the sidelines for Evgeniy Ermola, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
135% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
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.
Match5 Aug 2028
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Jul 2028
The cup run ends for Uni-X Labs
0‑1 against Dinamo Minsk, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market31 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Jul 2028
58 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match29 Jul 2028
4 matches without a win for Uni-X Labs
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Uni-X Labs are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
No signings allowed at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniil Podbereznyi, and the manager let it.
Loan watch31 Jul 2028
“I watch every Uni-X Labs game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gomel runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Jul 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Uni-X Labs are $4.2M in the red
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Jul 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings17 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Simeon Umeh 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.
Match15 Jul 2028
Still nobody has beaten Uni-X Labs
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad17 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Konev, and the manager let it.
Match15 Jul 2028
It needed Arturs Fertovs to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Volna Pinsk, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad17 Jul 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladislav Fezhenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad17 Jul 2028
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Player ratings17 Jul 2028
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Uni-X Labs were going nowhere until he came on.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Jul 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 Jul 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
Wages eat 134% of everything Uni-X Labs earn
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.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
Defensive actions: 18, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad10 Jul 2028
31 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Simeon Umeh is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.33 with 5 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Jul 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market3 Jul 2028
BATE come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Uni-X Labs did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Jul 2028
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Evgeniy Ermola: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Uni-X Labs have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad3 Jul 2028
The medical room confirms 86 days on the sidelines for Saulius Mikoliunas, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Denis Khvostovich commits to Uni-X Labs for another 4 years.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
$5.1K of the owner's money at Uni-X Labs
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.
Player ratings3 Jul 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match1 Jul 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Simeon Umeh’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Uni-X Labs.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom26 Jun 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Uni-X Labs now.
Player ratings26 Jun 2028
Defensive actions: 28. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market26 Jun 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match24 Jun 2028
No end in sight to Uni-X Labs's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Uni-X Labs has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Simeon Umeh in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings26 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom26 Jun 2028
Uni-X Labs are $4.1M in the red
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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniil Podbereznyi, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Jun 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match17 Jun 2028
The wait goes on for Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match17 Jun 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Ostrovets leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Alen Zoričić gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
Marked 5.62, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jun 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market12 Jun 2028
Matvey Kovruk has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Player ratings12 Jun 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.72, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad12 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Matvey Kovruk
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
Wages eat 128% of everything Uni-X Labs earn
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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
59 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“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; Uni-X Labs are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match10 Jun 2028
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jun 2028
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Rodrigo Santillán: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match31 May 2028
BATE are out and Uni-X Labs go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Market5 Jun 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The terraces5 Jun 2028
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 25 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad5 Jun 2028
The medical room confirms 114 days on the sidelines for Saulius Mikoliunas, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad5 Jun 2028
30 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match3 Jun 2028
Lida left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch5 Jun 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Uni-X Labs, and 3 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings29 May 2028
Defensive actions: 32. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market29 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom29 May 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Uni-X Labs now.
Market29 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Marked 8.83 — 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.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Marked 8.79 — 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.
Match27 May 2028
Three points for Uni-X Labs, 1‑0 the final word against Osipovichi in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Boardroom29 May 2028
Uni-X Labs are $3.9M in the red
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 May 2028
The wait goes on for Uni-X Labs
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market22 May 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 May 2028
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad22 May 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad22 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 May 2028
No end in sight to Uni-X Labs's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Uni-X Labs has to find a result from somewhere.
Market15 May 2028
Simeon Umeh hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Market15 May 2028
Matvey Kovruk has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings15 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 May 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad15 May 2028
Stepan Sokolovskiy 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.
Boardroom15 May 2028
139% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad15 May 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings15 May 2028
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Match6 May 2028
8 matches without a win for Uni-X Labs
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Uni-X Labs are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 May 2028
58 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings8 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings8 May 2028
A performance of 8.72 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad8 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Matvey Kovruk
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad8 May 2028
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Rodrigo Santillán knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Loan watch8 May 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Uni-X Labs, and 1 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 May 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Fezhenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match29 Apr 2028
The wait goes on for Uni-X Labs
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.
Boardroom1 May 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Uni-X Labs now.
Squad1 May 2028
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Rodrigo Santillán knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Squad1 May 2028
Stepan Sokolovskiy 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.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings1 May 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.54, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Marked 8.38 — 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.
Boardroom1 May 2028
Uni-X Labs are $3.9M in the red
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Apr 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniil Podbereznyi, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Apr 2028
Matvey Kovruk hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Market17 Apr 2028
Matvey Kovruk has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match15 Apr 2028
6 matches without a win for Uni-X Labs
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Uni-X Labs are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
Wages eat 148% of everything Uni-X Labs earn
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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Apr 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match15 Apr 2028
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Volna Pinsk will be the happier side with the point.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Every debut is a small story about the future: Dzmitry Makas, 16 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Apr 2028
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match5 Apr 2028
Molodechno are out and Uni-X Labs go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
The terraces10 Apr 2028
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 5 of the 25 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market10 Apr 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match8 Apr 2028
The wait goes on for Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Christoph Laimer 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match8 Apr 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Apr 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Fezhenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Uni-X Labs now.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Uni-X Labs are $3.7M in the red
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market27 Mar 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Simeon Umeh was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Saulius Mikoliunas, and the manager let it.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Defensive actions: 13. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 Mar 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market20 Mar 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom20 Mar 2028
145% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Justas Satkus, and the manager let it.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Marked 8.30 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Loan watch20 Mar 2028
“I watch every Uni-X Labs game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Isloch runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match18 Mar 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market13 Mar 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Simeon Umeh was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitriy Turovets, and the manager let it.
Match11 Mar 2028
Neman made Uni-X Labs work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.41, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Loan watch13 Mar 2028
“I watch every Uni-X Labs game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gomel runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Matvey Kovruk asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Mar 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vladislav Fezhenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Uni-X Labs now.
Market6 Mar 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market6 Mar 2028
The shirt still fits. Yahor Sivakov is back at Uni-X Labs, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market6 Mar 2028
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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.65, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad28 Feb 2028
“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; Uni-X Labs are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom21 Feb 2028
Pressure builds in the Uni-X Labs boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market21 Feb 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market21 Feb 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Simeon Umeh in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom21 Feb 2028
Wages eat 136% of everything Uni-X Labs earn
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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
22 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Feb 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad14 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market14 Feb 2028
Uni-X Labs have made Matvey Kovruk available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market14 Feb 2028
The clock does Thomas Essien’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Uni-X Labs could ask drops and the wages Thomas Essien can ask rise.
Squad14 Feb 2028
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Danil Pshenichnikov keeps the shirt for now, at Uni-X Labs's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Feb 2028
Simeon Umeh hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Feb 2028
The offer from Gomel for Matvey Kovruk was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Uni-X Labs now.
Squad7 Feb 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Christoph Laimer commits to Uni-X Labs for another 1 years.
Squad7 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Feb 2028
“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; Uni-X Labs are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Matvey Kovruk asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Jan 2028
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
Pressure builds in the Uni-X Labs boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market24 Jan 2028
Only the photograph left for Matvey Kovruk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matvey Kovruk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Jan 2028
The medical room confirms 52 days on the sidelines for Arturs Fertovs, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Simeon Umeh in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
Wages eat 122% of everything Uni-X Labs earn
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Arturs Fertovs asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Jan 2028
Simeon Umeh hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom10 Jan 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Uni-X Labs now.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Market10 Jan 2028
The clock runs on Justas Satkus's contract
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Arturs Fertovs knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A season on the outside for Justas Satkus
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Uni-X Labs has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad3 Jan 2028
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Uni-X Labs will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market3 Jan 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Simeon Umeh in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Arturs Fertovs and Uni-X Labs agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Dec 2027
Matvey Kovruk has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Uni-X Labs
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad27 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
Wages eat 121% of everything Uni-X Labs earn
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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
“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; Uni-X Labs are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad27 Dec 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dmitriy Turovets trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Dec 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Denis Khvostovich was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 Dec 2027
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Uni-X Labs has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom13 Dec 2027
The numbers do not look good at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Eduard Hryshyn commits to Uni-X Labs for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Market6 Dec 2027
Only the photograph left for Maxim Volodko
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxim Volodko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Petr Kazantsev 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Uni-X Labs know it.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Matvey Kovruk asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 35 with 10 appearances behind him, and Uni-X Labs have to plan for both answers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Nov 2027
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market29 Nov 2027
Matvey Kovruk has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Uni-X Labs
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad29 Nov 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Uni-X Labs have had the benefit of it.
Squad29 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
180% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Nov 2027
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maxim Mitskevich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market22 Nov 2027
Uni-X Labs have made Petr Kazantsev available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Nov 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market15 Nov 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom15 Nov 2027
The numbers do not look good at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A season on the outside for Dejvi Duro
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Uni-X Labs has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Nov 2027
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Nov 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market8 Nov 2027
The clock does Guillaume Dequaire’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Uni-X Labs could ask drops and the wages Guillaume Dequaire can ask rise.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Uni-X Labs would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Nov 2027
Only the photograph left for Matvey Kovruk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matvey Kovruk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Uni-X Labs
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market1 Nov 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad1 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Wages eat 169% of everything Uni-X Labs earn
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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Uni-X Labs would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Oct 2027
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Uni-X Labs know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market18 Oct 2027
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Oct 2027
18 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Simeon Umeh 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.
Boardroom18 Oct 2027
The numbers do not look good at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Matvey Kovruk knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Oct 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market11 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Market11 Oct 2027
The clock does Guillaume Dequaire’s negotiating for him
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Uni-X Labs could ask drops and the wages Guillaume Dequaire can ask rise.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Faza Al Firdaus asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market11 Oct 2027
Uni-X Labs have let the market know Evgeniy Ermola can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Oct 2027
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market4 Oct 2027
Matvey Kovruk has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Uni-X Labs
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Uni-X Labs is running low.
Squad4 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
Wages eat 201% of everything Uni-X Labs earn
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“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; Uni-X Labs are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Sep 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Simeon Umeh in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Sep 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market20 Sep 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom20 Sep 2027
The numbers do not look good at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market20 Sep 2027
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Uni-X Labs money.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Sep 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market13 Sep 2027
Only the photograph left for Maxim Volodko
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxim Volodko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Denis Khvostovich was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Maxim Mitskevich and Uni-X Labs agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Guillaume Dequaire trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market13 Sep 2027
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Uni-X Labs could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Sep 2027
Simeon Umeh hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Market6 Sep 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Wages eat 227% of everything Uni-X Labs earn
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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Matvey Kovruk asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Simeon Umeh in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Aug 2027
Molodechno left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Matvey Kovruk knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matvey Kovruk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
A mark of 5.70 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Marked 5.74, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
A mark of 5.77 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Guillaume Dequaire will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market23 Aug 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad23 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“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; Uni-X Labs are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad23 Aug 2027
The team sheet said everything about Daniil Podbereznyi
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Daniil Podbereznyi.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
The numbers do not look good at Uni-X Labs
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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Volodko, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Aug 2027
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Aug 2027
Only the photograph left for Maxim Volodko
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxim Volodko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Guillaume Dequaire 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.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Marked 9.33 — 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Denis Khvostovich. 1‑0 against Lokomotiv Gomel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Uni-X Labs know it.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Defensive actions: 18. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Defensive actions: 18, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Aug 2027
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The terraces9 Aug 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 29 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Match7 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Uni-X Labs's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Uni-X Labs has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“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; Uni-X Labs are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
202% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
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.
Match7 Aug 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Aug 2027
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match31 Jul 2027
4 matches without a win for Uni-X Labs
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Uni-X Labs are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Timur Borisenkov and Uni-X Labs agree another 3 years.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Uni-X Labs know it.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.54 on the card, and the Uni-X Labs support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Defensive actions: 13. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jul 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Market26 Jul 2027
Cláudio Murici has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
The numbers do not look good at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Timur Borisenkov, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Jul 2027
Franco Peña has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market19 Jul 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad19 Jul 2027
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Uni-X Labs pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Matvey Kovruk knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Match17 Jul 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Baranovichi defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Jul 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market12 Jul 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
Wages eat 221% of everything Uni-X Labs earn
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.
Match10 Jul 2027
0‑1 to Osipovichi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
5.25 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Market12 Jul 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Uni-X Labs, another week without a signature from Maxim Mitskevich.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jul 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market5 Jul 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
A mark of 7.68, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Market5 Jul 2027
Still no signature from Franco Peña
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Uni-X Labs could get for him.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Guillaume Dequaire is 37, with 0 appearances behind him, and Uni-X Labs will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
Match3 Jul 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Slonim will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jun 2027
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market28 Jun 2027
Vitebsk are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Uni-X Labs will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Match26 Jun 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Alexandr Konev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Uni-X Labs.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
A mark of 7.74, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Jun 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market21 Jun 2027
Only the photograph left for Cláudio Murici
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cláudio Murici will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market21 Jun 2027
The phone has started ringing about Matvey Kovruk again, and this time the name on the line is Vitebsk. Uni-X Labs are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match19 Jun 2027
4 matches without a win for Uni-X Labs
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Uni-X Labs are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Uni-X Labs know it.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Petr Kazantsev 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.
Match19 Jun 2027
Ostrovets left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jun 2027
Matvey Kovruk hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Jun 2027
Franco Peña has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Jun 2027
40 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad14 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Jun 2027
Still nobody has beaten Uni-X Labs
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Uni-X Labs know it.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
Wages eat 256% of everything Uni-X Labs earn
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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.61 on the card, and the Uni-X Labs support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Uni-X Labs know it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
40 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Marked 8.87 — 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Alexey Semenov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
A performance of 8.19 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match5 Jun 2027
A 2‑2 draw with Volna Pinsk leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matvey Kovruk, and the manager let it.
Squad31 May 2027
“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; Uni-X Labs are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match29 May 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Boardroom31 May 2027
The numbers do not look good at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad31 May 2027
Evgeniy Radkov knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings31 May 2027
A mark of 5.72 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 May 2027
Cláudio Murici has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market24 May 2027
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 May 2027
Simeon Umeh in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 May 2027
A 1‑0 win over Orsha, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad24 May 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings24 May 2027
The afternoon belonged to Simeon Umeh
A mark of 7.97, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad24 May 2027
Matvey Kovruk asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 May 2027
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market17 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Franco Peña
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Franco Peña will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 May 2027
The medical room confirms 68 days on the sidelines for Guillaume Dequaire, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match15 May 2027
No end in sight to Uni-X Labs's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Uni-X Labs has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad17 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 May 2027
Wages eat 251% of everything Uni-X Labs earn
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.
Player ratings17 May 2027
A performance of 8.20 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 May 2027
“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; Uni-X Labs are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 May 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 May 2027
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Petr Kazantsev
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.54 on the card, and the Uni-X Labs support went home talking about one name.
Squad10 May 2027
“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.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match8 May 2027
Point won or two lost for Uni-X Labs?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Arsenal Dzerzhinsk? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 May 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 May 2027
Simeon Umeh 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.
Match1 May 2027
A bad afternoon for Uni-X Labs against Niva
0‑1 to Niva, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Alexey Semenov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market3 May 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Boardroom3 May 2027
The numbers do not look good at Uni-X Labs
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.
Player ratings3 May 2027
5.66 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Player ratings3 May 2027
A mark of 5.79 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Apr 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Market26 Apr 2027
Cláudio Murici has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“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; Uni-X Labs are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market26 Apr 2027
The clock does Cláudio Murici’s negotiating for him
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Uni-X Labs could ask drops and the wages Cláudio Murici can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Apr 2027
Only the photograph left for Franco Peña
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Franco Peña will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market19 Apr 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad19 Apr 2027
97 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Uni-X Labs know it.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
278% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.74, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexandr Konev, and the manager let it.
Match17 Apr 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Apr 2027
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.19, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“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; Uni-X Labs are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match10 Apr 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alexandr Konev. 2‑1 against Osipovichi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aliaksandr Ihnatovich, and the manager let it.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Marked 8.03 — 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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Uni-X Labs will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Mar 2027
Torpedo-BelAZ ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market5 Apr 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Uni-X Labs have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The terraces5 Apr 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 9 of the 34 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Uni-X Labs know it.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Simeon Umeh in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Apr 2027
Alexandr Konev scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Slonim, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad5 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Daniil Narchuk
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market29 Mar 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad29 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.24, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Defensive actions: 20. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match27 Mar 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Simeon Umeh’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Uni-X Labs.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Uni-X Labs, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Mar 2027
9 matches without a win for Uni-X Labs
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Uni-X Labs are no longer polite ones.
Market22 Mar 2027
Franco Peña has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market22 Mar 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Mar 2027
125 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
272% of the income goes out in wages at Uni-X Labs
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Uni-X Labs know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Uni-X Labs's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Uni-X Labs has to find a result from somewhere.
Market15 Mar 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uni-X Labs can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Simeon Umeh 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.
Match13 Mar 2027
Lida left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad15 Mar 2027
At 20 years old, Aliaksandr Ihnatovich became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
Market15 Mar 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
A mark of 5.53 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Mar 2027
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match6 Mar 2027
The wait goes on for Uni-X Labs
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.
Market8 Mar 2027
As if he never left: Yahor Rios returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Yahor Rios is a Uni-X Labs player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market8 Mar 2027
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.
Market8 Mar 2027
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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Matvey Kovruk
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Marked 8.20 — 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.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Mar 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market1 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market1 Mar 2027
The shirt still fits. Vsevolod Pershin is back at Uni-X Labs, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad1 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market1 Mar 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Uni-X Labs, another week without a signature from Alexey Semenov.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Feb 2027
Franco Peña has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Uni-X Labs they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market22 Feb 2027
“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 Uni-X Labs, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Feb 2027
154 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Denis Khvostovich 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.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Wages eat 287% of everything Uni-X Labs earn
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market15 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“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; Uni-X Labs are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Evgeniy Ermola and Uni-X Labs agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.