Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zorya have kept their man, and Shakhtar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mykola Harmash will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Shakhtar heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmytro Kryskiv was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Shakhtar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luca Meirelles has just signed for Shakhtar, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Prosper Obah
Metalist have accepted the money. What Shakhtar do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer from Dynamo Kyiv for Vinicius Tobias 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shakhtar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer went to Metalist this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Alisson 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 Vinicius Tobias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugoutThe manager makes an example of Lucas Ferreira
BoardroomOpen for business: Shakhtar enter the window
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.
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
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.
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 Kyrylo Fesiun is on it.
84 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 at Shakhtar 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Shakhtar has been clear about where Tymur Puzankov stands, which is more than many ever get.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
20 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Leandro Andrade obliged against Dynamo Kyiv. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Shakhtar.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Shakhtar had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Shakhtar supporters have already started telling it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kauã Elias 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 Dmytro Kryskiv was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
15 appearances at Universidad Catolica and the goals have stopped going in. Shakhtar lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Nobody at Shakhtar 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Shakhtar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Shakhtar hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmytro Kryskiv 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.
12 appearances at Universidad Catolica and the goals have stopped going in. Shakhtar lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Nobody at Shakhtar 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 Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kauã Elias 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irakli Azarovi 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.
11 appearances at Universidad Catolica and the goals have stopped going in. Shakhtar lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Shakhtar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
18 seasons and 269 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mykola Harmash will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Irakli Azarovi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Kauã Elias 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 Dmytro Kryskiv was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Alisson is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Shakhtar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
6 shut-outs in 7 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Mykyta Turbaievskyi has been having a lot of them.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match15 Mar 2028
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Shakhtar. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Kauã Elias 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 22 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Player ratingsLeandro Andrade was on a different afternoon to everybody else
84 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.12, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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 at Shakhtar 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Shakhtar have no good answer.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Shakhtar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutProsper Obah knocks on the manager’s door
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mykola Harmash will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Shakhtar heard it as anything else.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mykola Matviienko commits to Shakhtar for another 4 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmytro Kryskiv 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rukh waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denys Bida will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Kauã Elias 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 Oleksandr Stepanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Shakhtar will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
9 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.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 84 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alisson provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
A brace, and Kauã Elias takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kauã Elias provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Add another name to the list: Rukh have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Vinicius Tobias. The answer from Shakhtar has not changed — yet.
Match19 Feb 2028
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Shakhtar. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Metalurh Zaporizhzhia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
81 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Isaque had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kauã Elias did not need any: 8.56, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
LNZ will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Shakhtar were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Kauã Elias, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 10.00
A mark of 10.00 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Karpaty waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
6 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
17 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Kauã Elias, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 10.00
A mark of 10.00 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.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Young Boys paid $8.6M and Shakhtar took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
5 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mykola Harmash will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
69 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kauã Elias did not need any: 10.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer from Dinamo Zagreb for Artem Bondarenko 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.
The name of Dmytro Riznyk has come up in conversations Shakhtar were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Shakhtar know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 38. 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.
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Isaque did not need any: 8.10, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar 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 Vinicius Tobias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kauã Elias did not need any: 9.42, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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. Shakhtar will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Shakhtar hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Leandro Andrade 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.
In brief
The terracesShakhtar supporters have found a favourite in Alisson
SquadWords at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Alisson at his very best
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Alisson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmytro Kryskiv 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: 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.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.03, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
An average of 7.71 in a first team he is several years too young for. Shakhtar have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Isaque, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.95
A mark of 7.95 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Alisson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vinicius Tobias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
21 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Shakhtar hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmytro Kryskiv was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Player ratingsAlisson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
20 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.
9 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kauã Elias did not need any: 9.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mykola Harmash will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vinicius Tobias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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.
18 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
8 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
A season average of 7.63 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Shakhtar know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Isaque, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.94
A mark of 7.94 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Alisson 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.
At 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmytro Kryskiv was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
17 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kauã Elias did not need any: 9.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lucas Ferreira provided it, and the 8.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
15 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.
Chornomorets will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Shakhtar were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kauã Elias did not need any: 10.00, 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 Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Shakhtar and Chornomorets in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
SquadVinicius Tobias falls out with a teammate over standards
14 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
First, on 39 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Isaque, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.00
A mark of 8.00 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
7 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Shakhtar hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
13 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
A season average of 7.34 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Shakhtar know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Alisson 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vinicius Tobias 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.
LNZ made Shakhtar work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Prosper Obah was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
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 Alisson is on it.
12 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
6 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vinicius Tobias 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 sale went through, the money came with it, and everything anybody had planned for next season is now provisional. New owners always arrive promising patience.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 9.12 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Isaque, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.40
A mark of 8.40 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Polissia will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Alisson 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vinicius Tobias 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.
9 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.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Kryvbas had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Shakhtar did not stop to explain themselves.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.22, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vitalii Kholod is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Alisson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Shakhtar heard it as anything else.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vinicius Tobias 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.
Shakhtar asked and Ferencvaros said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
1‑0 against Dynamo Kyiv, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
8 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Shakhtar people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Shakhtar close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 25 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Shakhtar support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bukovyna waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mykola Harmash will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 23 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Muhamadou Kanteh provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and UCSA waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar 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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Shakhtar people have started saying his name in the past tense.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
1 for Artem Bondarenko, marked 7.97, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Alisson 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Feniks waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Dynamo Kyiv for Kyrylo Fesiun 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Shakhtar people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alisson did not need any: 8.17, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer from Maccabi Haifa for Mykyta Turbaievskyi 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.
The fee is $1.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Zorya drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
7.78, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Domagoj Jelavić has, at Shakhtar, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chornomorets waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kauã Elias did not need any: 9.96, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The phone has started ringing about Dmytro Riznyk again, and this time the name on the line is Olympiacos. Shakhtar are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Zorya this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
1 for Artem Bondarenko, marked 7.70, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Oleksandr Karavaiev had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bukovyna waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Alisson 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 Vinicius Tobias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A rule about passports rather than about football has decided he cannot play. Shakhtar had more of them than the form allows, and somebody had to be the name that did not fit.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Shakhtar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Panathinaikos had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Bayer Leverkusen for Kauã Elias 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Shakhtar offered $600.0K; Zorya said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Shakhtar hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vinicius Tobias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
24 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Shakhtar people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The name of Dmytro Riznyk has come up in conversations Shakhtar were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
$600.0K was the most the club would pay and Zorya were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zorya have kept their man, and Shakhtar 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.
In brief
SquadEduard Kozik has improved at 24, which nobody expected
The dugoutAlisson has become a man the manager trusts
The offer from RB Leipzig for Alisson 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Shakhtar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A season average of 7.51 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Shakhtar know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Zorya paid $3.3M and Shakhtar took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Shakhtar asked and Zorya said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mykyta Turbaievskyi has, at Shakhtar, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Alisson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Newertton had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
At 21 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zorya have kept their man, and Shakhtar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Shakhtar have gone to Zorya with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kyrylo Fesiun had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marlon 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
14 new faces, and Shakhtar 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.
Nobody at Shakhtar 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 is 21, he is averaging 7.71, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The offer from Radnik Surdulica for Denys Tvardovskyi 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.
The phone has started ringing about Kauã Elias again, and this time the name on the line is RB Leipzig. Shakhtar are listening politely and promising nothing.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Vinicius Tobias wants continental football; whether Shakhtar can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
At 18 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.
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. Shakhtar will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
A season average of 7.51 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Shakhtar know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
32 games, 35 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Shakhtar now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
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 Alisson is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Newertton trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
MarketMuhamadou Kanteh returns from a loan that gave him nothing
35 goals in 32 games at Adana Demirspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Shakhtar heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 18 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.
13 appearances away from home and 11 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marlon 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.
Nobody at Shakhtar 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Shakhtar that is a harder question to answer.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Gleiker Mendoza’s exile
82 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shakhtar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Viktor Korniienko and Shakhtar agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alaa Ghram was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Kauã Elias is on it.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.51, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shakhtar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Alisson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Viktor Korniienko and Shakhtar agree another 4 years.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marlon 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 Shakhtar, and 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Alisson is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kauã Elias trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 goals in 12 games at Antalyaspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marlon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Vinicius Tobias is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Shakhtar have no good answer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar 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.
10 goals in 11 games at Antalyaspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Leandro Andrade is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.71, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Alisson 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marlon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A season average of 7.51 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Shakhtar know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Shakhtar heard it as anything else.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Shakhtar can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marlon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑2 against Porto, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
The offer from IFK Norrkoping for Yevhen Pidlepenets 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.
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.
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 dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Yevhen Kocherhin to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Shakhtar 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.
82 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Alisson 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 easiest signature of my career.” Oleksandr Stepanov and Shakhtar agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 Oleh Ocheretko is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Shakhtar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
17 seasons and 239 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
A season average of 7.51 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Shakhtar know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Shakhtar will try not to make too much of it.
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 Alisson is on it.
0 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
1‑5 against Porto. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Nagoya Grampus moved on, Alisson reports back to Shakhtar, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Viktor Korniienko had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Shakhtar ran out of time with Al-Ahli. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alisson did not need any: 8.10, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Shakhtar close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Shakhtar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
7 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.
Shakhtar have gone to Al-Ahli with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Shakhtar and a story that will outlast his contract.
Shakhtar asked and Chornomorets said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Oleh Ocheretko
79 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
26 goals in 23 games at Adana Demirspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oleh Ocheretko provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
A brace, and Kauã Elias takes the afternoon — 8.36
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kauã Elias provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
8 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Shakhtar have paid $9.7M for Leandro Andrade, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kyrylo Fesiun had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Leandro Andrade is living that version at Shakhtar, and it tends to show in the first month.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Shakhtar and Polissia have settled on $9.7M. 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.
Kudrivka will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Shakhtar were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A brace, and Kauã Elias takes the afternoon — 8.80
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kauã Elias provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Lassina Traoré had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Two goals and a mark of 8.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
23 goals in 21 games at Adana Demirspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alisson did not need any: 8.43, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Two goals and a mark of 9.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lucas Ferreira provided it, and the 8.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
PAOK paid $11.0M and Shakhtar took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alisson did not need any: 8.39, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Shakhtar and Obolon in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
67 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and AS Trencin waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A season average of 7.49 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Shakhtar know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
6 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
19 goals in 19 games at Adana Demirspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Dmytro Riznyk: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vélez waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Two goals and a mark of 8.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kyrylo Fesiun had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Alisson, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.48
A mark of 8.48 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.37, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
7 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.07 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 Shakhtar have had the benefit of it.
He is going to São Paulo, the club has $24.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
21 goals and a season average of 7.58. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Alisson, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.35
A mark of 8.35 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Shakhtar and LNZ in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
2‑1 against Olimpija Ljubljana, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Shakhtar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Marked 8.22 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
Shakhtar are 1 in the table and the town has noticed
52 points, a place near the top and a ground that has begun to enjoy itself. Nobody will say the word out loud, which is the surest indication that everybody is thinking it.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Alisson, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.39
A mark of 8.39 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.
6 goals in one match, Eguinaldo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Shakhtar and Kolos.
2‑3 away to the standard of Anderlecht. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Newertton did not need any: 8.36, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Marlon Gomes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Shakhtar can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.07 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shakhtar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
A season average of 7.16 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Shakhtar know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Kauã Elias scored in the 87th minute, Oleksandriya had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Shakhtar took the lot.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Alisson, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.27
A mark of 8.27 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.
4 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kauã Elias. 2‑1 against Oleksandriya, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 20 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 fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Shakhtar will be judged on one thing only.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Shakhtar will try not to make too much of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
At 18 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Marlon Gomes 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.
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
Marlon Gomes 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Yevhen Kocherhin after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
7 goals in 6 games at Adana Demirspor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
1‑1 against Olimpija Ljubljana, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Alisson was at the centre of the description.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Marlon Gomes 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
He is 23 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.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.17, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Shakhtar will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
In brief
Player ratingsAlan Matturro ran the middle of the pitch — 7.35
2‑3 against Anderlecht, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Alisson, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.29
A mark of 8.29 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.87 for the rest of it.
Pedrinho 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 21, he is averaging 7.04, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Shakhtar heard it as anything else.
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.