Václav Černý and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The 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.
“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 Besiktas, and 0 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout18 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.” Enes Omur, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 Milot Rashica is on it.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
The dugoutÜmit Akdağ is still being punished for one mistake
2‑1 against Gornik Zabrze, 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.
Václav Černý 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.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.83, and 2 involvements.
At 27 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Jackson Muleka had Besiktas level again within 3 minutes, and Gornik Zabrze never got to play with a lead at all.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathias Fjørtoft Løvik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Besiktas had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Václav Černý 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Ilhan Fakili 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.
24 games, 1 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Besiktas now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Nobody at Besiktas 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ümit Akdağ trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vorskla will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Roman Vantukh 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 May 2027
Ümit Akdağ 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Artur Rudko is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladyslav Semotiuk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vorskla will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ümit Akdağ 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vorskla can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Vorskla, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vorskla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ümit Akdağ 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 board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vorskla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Roman Vantukh 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.
In brief
SquadÜmit Akdağ falls out with a teammate over standards
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vorskla will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vorskla 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 Ümit Akdağ was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladyslav Semotiuk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Artem Serdiuk is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vorskla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Roman Vantukh 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ümit Akdağ 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mate Antunović, and the manager let it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
7 new faces, and Vorskla 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vorskla will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Roman Vantukh was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ümit Akdağ 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ümit Akdağ 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. America Mineiro have kept their man, and Vorskla go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Vorskla had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cruzeiro, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Roman Vantukh 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Ümit Akdağ 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Vorskla will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Vorskla, another week without a signature from Bohdan Boichuk.
7 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 Artur Rudko is on it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Vorskla have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Vorskla had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Atlético Mineiro, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vorskla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Vorskla offered $65.0K; Epicentr 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Ümit Akdağ 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Stan Held has, at Vorskla, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ümit Akdağ was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Oleksandr Lomaha has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Vorskla have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bohdan Khoma and Vorskla agree another 3 years.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
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 Mykola Sobol left the room before anybody could ask which.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vorskla lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
94 minutes played. Vladyslav Voitsekhovskyi found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Chernihiv went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“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 Vorskla, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Roman Vantukh 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 Ümit Akdağ was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Nazar Didenko 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 words a physio says slowly. 29 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vorskla 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 Ümit Akdağ was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vorskla lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Roman Vantukh 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 Ümit Akdağ was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vorskla can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Vorskla, another week without a signature from Bohdan Boichuk.
“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 Vorskla, and it is not being withdrawn.
Roman Vantukh 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 Vladyslav Semotiuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bohdan Boichuk. 1‑0 against Inhulets, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mykola Sobol on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vorskla have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Roman Vantukh 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Adam Aït Ali Oulhaj has, at Vorskla, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Denys Bezus has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Metalist had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Vorskla did not stop to explain themselves.
“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 Vorskla, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 5.81 for the rest of it.
Roman Vantukh 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ümit Akdağ. 2‑1 against Metalist, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Fatih Karagumruk will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Besiktas were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“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.
Besiktas offered $1.8M; Kasimpasa 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.
Orkun Kökçü 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.
Marked 10.00 — 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.
Vorskla had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Legia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Roman Vantukh and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Polissia have kept their man, and Vorskla go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladyslav Semotiuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.