The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Metalist people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Shakhtar for Heorhii Yermakov 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.
“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 Metalist know it.
Vinicius Tobias 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Peter Itodo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Metalist have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Nazar Voloshyn was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metalist will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Metalist had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Metalist and Veres in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peter Itodo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peter Itodo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Heorhiy Sobol kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Nazar Voloshyn
Position 3, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Valentyn Halonskyi 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.
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.
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 Raymond Owusu is on it.
Obolon next, and one man in the Metalist dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Peter Itodo signs something — a contract at Metalist or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Vinicius Tobias and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ermir Rashica 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.
Marked 8.30. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Metalist.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
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.” Heorhiy Sobol, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
“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 Metalist, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Arinaldo Rrapaj provided it, and the 8.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Vinicius Tobias 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.
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ermir Rashica 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Arinaldo Rrapaj. 3‑1 against Vorskla, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 25 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Metalist will try again when the window opens; LNZ may not be selling by then.
The phone has started ringing about Dmytro Kapinus again, and this time the name on the line is Prykarpattia. Metalist are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ermir Rashica 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metalist this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Ermir Rashica falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Heorhiy Sobol could afford to be generous.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rafael Profini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
0‑3 to Shakhtar, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Metalist asked and Athletico Paranaense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metalist have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Vinicius Tobias 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 first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Shakhtar; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Peter Itodo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Steaua Bucharest is saying, and nobody at Metalist is enjoying the guessing.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Metalist can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
21 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Peter Itodo 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.
Baton Zabërgja 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Diego 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 last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 52 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metalist they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Oleksandr Yatsyk scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“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; Metalist are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Metalist did not have in the autumn.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Arévalo 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Oleksii Sydorov reports back to Metalist with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Metalist can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metalist this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
16 goals in 29 games at Chornomorets — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Metalist updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Metalist will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
6 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.
Kolos and Oleksandriya have settled on $48.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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; Kolos are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kolos ran out of time with Metalist. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
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 Metalist people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Metalist go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Metalist, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metalist is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Metalist know 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Kolos people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Kolos and Metalist have settled on $880.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Elias Telles 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 had been thinking. Nika Gagnidze is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Livyi Bereh have kept their man, and Kolos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Metalist have done the hard part with Kolos, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“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 Metalist, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at PAOK is saying, and nobody at Metalist is enjoying the guessing.
The fee is $310.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Livyi Bereh drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Heorhii Yermakov 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 Nicolás Arévalo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PAOK have kept their man, and Metalist go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Kolos asked and Dynamo Kyiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The chase for Artem Slesar ended with $2.3M changing hands and Zorya out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kolos can pretend not to have heard.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduard Kozik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Nyva waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kolos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The bid was some way short and Kolos did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
$2.3M settles it between the clubs for Artem Slesar
Zorya have accepted the money. What Kolos do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
The fee is $300.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Chornomorets drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Marked 7.74. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
In brief
Player ratingsA goal and an assist for Denys Ndukve — 7.67
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kolos can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kolos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have shaken hands with Chornomorets; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Kolos will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kolos have done the hard part with Dynamo Kyiv, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Elias Telles 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.
13 combined actions and 6.94. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kolos can pretend not to have heard.
Alaa Ghram 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Ivan Bendera has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Kolos have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Kolos can tell you which week it ends in.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Cleitinho falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dmytro Marlos after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Nika Gagnidze 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.
0‑2 to Shakhtar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Eduard Kozik falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Dmytro Marlos left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Kolos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Arinaldo Rrapaj signs something — a contract at Kolos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.80 for the rest of it.
Elias Telles 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.
Half the programme played, position 9, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cleitinho 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Ivan Pakholiuk knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduard Kozik 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.
“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 Kolos, and 8 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dmytro Marlos after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kolos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ruslan Stepaniuk 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.
11 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 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Kolos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Kolos have made Nika Gagnidze available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout28 Sep 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.” Dmytro Marlos chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“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 Kolos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduard Kozik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Kolos asked and Legia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Dmytro Marlos left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kolos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Eduard Kozik falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Kolos asked and Gornik Zabrze said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
8.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Elias Telles 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.
Add another name to the list: Puszcza Niepołomice have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Artem Husol. The answer from Kolos has not changed — yet.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Kolos, another week without a signature from Valentyn Morhun.
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Kolos are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.