The offer from BATE for Yaroslav Khramtsevich 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Isloch have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Daniil Chergeyko 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Volna Pinsk have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Uni-X Labs have made the call to Torpedo-BelAZ. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Kirill Nekhaichik has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hleb Laptev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Slutsk scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Uni-X Labs told Alexandr Rakhmatov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Uni-X Labs people have started saying his name in the past tense.
A mark of 8.09 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.13, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Egor Snapkov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Yaroslav Khramtsevich has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Volna Pinsk have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Khalimonchikov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Vitebsk is saying, and nobody at Uni-X Labs is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Uni-X Labs asked and Baranovichi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Khalimonchikov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ostrovets in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vladimir Popov did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Uni-X Labs asked and Baranovichi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A point taken on 94 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ostrovets waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
A season average of 7.09 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Uni-X Labs know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Egor Snapkov has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Yaroslav Khramtsevich has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Two goals and a mark of 8.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vladimir Popov did not need any: 8.08, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Khramtsevich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Baranovichi have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Uni-X Labs people have started saying his name in the past tense.
A mark of 7.92 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Matvey Svidinskiy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Khalimonchikov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A mark of 7.94 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A season average of 7.02 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Uni-X Labs know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Yaroslav Khramtsevich has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Maksim Gordeichuk is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Uladzislau Hryshyn is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Eduard Palitsevich has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Half the programme played, position 5, 19 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Nobody at Uni-X Labs will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Nobody at Uni-X Labs will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Uni-X Labs have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Vitaliy Urbanovich’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Uni-X Labs needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Matvey Svidinskiy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alexandr Rakhmatov is on it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“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 Vladislav Fezhenko.
Squad17 May 2027
A Uni-X Labs teenager takes the young player award
Yaroslav Khramtsevich is 19, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Slutsk defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
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.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniil Chergeyko. 2‑0 against Lokomotiv Gomel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mikalai Kendysh has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yauhen Nekhaichik has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 87% of the Uni-X Labs income
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yaroslav Khramtsevich did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Matvey Svidinskiy has come out of that comparison in the side, and Uni-X Labs have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Matvey Svidinskiy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Ostrovets next, and one man in the Uni-X Labs dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Maxim Zhordochkin has written the date down.
Matvey Svidinskiy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ihar Chalavach was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Uni-X Labs is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 17 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniil Chergeyko. 2‑1 against Orsha, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Daniil Chergeyko 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The young player of the month award goes to a 19-year-old at Uni-X Labs who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
A mark of 8.04 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Slonim scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
It needed Yaroslav Khramtsevich to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Slonim, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Mikita Laptev chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matvey Svidinskiy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A Uni-X Labs teenager takes the young player award
Yaroslav Khramtsevich is 19, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Maxim Volodko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mikita Laptev on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“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.
Nobody at Uni-X Labs will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Smorgon have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Egor Snapkov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Yaroslav Khramtsevich has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“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
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Zhordochkin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yaroslav Khramtsevich did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Uni-X Labs asked and Minsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
In brief
BoardroomA promise the Uni-X Labs board did not keep
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
BoardroomNo investment in the facilities at Uni-X Labs
31Edition
The Uni-X Labs Gazette
1 Mar 2027
From our football correspondentUneasy
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Uni-X Labs until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Khramtsevich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yaroslav Khramtsevich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Volna Pinsk next, and one man in the Uni-X Labs dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Uni-X Labs have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Matvey Svidinskiy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slutsk have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutEgor Snapkov knocks on the manager’s door
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Volna Pinsk have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Daniil Chergeyko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Molodechno have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ihar Stasevich has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Uni-X Labs people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Volna Pinsk have kept their man, and Uni-X Labs go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Torpedo-BelAZ have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matvey Svidinskiy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladimir Popov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Uni-X Labs will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Maxim Podluzhny is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Uni-X Labs have gone and got theirs early.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Dmitriy Khalimonchikov keeps the shirt for now, at Uni-X Labs's convenience rather than his own.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Khramtsevich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Uni-X Labs training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Khramtsevich is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Uladzimir Ihnatovich is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yauhen Bykau is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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.
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He is 20, and nobody at Uni-X Labs signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ivan Golomako is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ivan Vorobjev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nikolay Mirskiy 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.
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.
Matvey Kovruk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Dmitriy Khalimonchikov plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Uladzislau Filipenko has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yauhen Dragun is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matvey Svidinskiy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Maxim Volodko 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladimir Popov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Maxim Volodko is 34, with 253 appearances behind him, and Uni-X Labs will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ivan Vorobjev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Maxim Volodko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yaroslav Khramtsevich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Dmitriy Khalimonchikov has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“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.
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Eduard Korzun has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Stanislau Rios has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“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.
“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 Ivan Vorobjev.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Uni-X Labs the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
An order from above at Uni-X Labs: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ivan Vorobjev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Uni-X Labs the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matvey Svidinskiy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Uni-X Labs will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Uni-X Labs the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Ivan Golomako are not good
17 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“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.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
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.
“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.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Uni-X Labs the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Artem Martynovich has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kirill Filipenko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Maxim Volodko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ivan Vorobjev has agreed terms with Naftan for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Matvey Svidinskiy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Egor Semenov has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutMatvey Kovruk asks for a word with the manager
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.
17 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“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.
That is the business done at Uni-X Labs until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Uni-X Labs asked and Minsk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vitaliy Nekhaichik is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yan Filipenko has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matvey Svidinskiy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Artur Kats is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Nikolay Mirskiy has come out of that comparison in the side, and Uni-X Labs have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“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.
Nobody at Uni-X Labs will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Vadim Kiselev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Yan Pikuza has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Uni-X Labs have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
17 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Mikita Laptev was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Uni-X Labs dressing room was either.
A brace, and Vadim Kiselev takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vadim Kiselev provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nikolay Mirskiy did not need any: 8.52, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Uni-X Labs are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The one goal a footballer does not get to celebrate and does not get to forget either. His name is in the wrong column and nothing about it was meant.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Mikita Laptev, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Matvey Svidinskiy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A mark of 7.45, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Mikita Laptev chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The deal with Volna Pinsk is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uni-X Labs this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Uladzimir Martynovich has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Viktar Malevich has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Eduard Palitsevich has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Raman Kendysh has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dmitriy Khalimonchikov and Uni-X Labs agree another 4 years.
Matvey Svidinskiy 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Dmitriy Khalimonchikov’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
15 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Mikita Laptev to a room that had heard them before.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Daniil Narchuk