Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Denys Nahnoinyi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Metalist the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Kaya Makosso has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metalist this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Beni Makouana 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 watch every Metalist game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zorya runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Metalist know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
$1.9M was the most the club would pay and Polissia 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Metalist heard it as anything else.
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.
This is not rotation. Denys Antiukh has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Metalist is pretending otherwise.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Beni Makouana 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 name of Valerii Dubko has come up in conversations Metalist were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Prosper Obah was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $7.0M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Beni Makouana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Maksym Luniov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Metalist have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
Metalist paid $7.0M 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.
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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Anton Drozd has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Newertton and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Gocholeishvili 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Chornomorets had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Metalist have done the hard part with Shakhtar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metalist can pretend not to have heard.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $72.3K — a club that wants Andrii Demydenko enough to be asked twice.
Zorya paid $970.0K and Metalist took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Heorhii Yermakov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
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 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“It was not 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.
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.
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.
1 for Dmytro Kryskiv, marked 7.87, 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Illia Kvasnytsia is living that version at Shakhtar, and it tends to show in the first month.
The name of Prosper Obah has come up in conversations Shakhtar were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Newertton 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.
39 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
47 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Radnicki 1923 had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
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.
“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.
“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.
34 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mykola Oharkov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Newertton 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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eguinaldo 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.
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 Álvaro Fernández is on it.
29 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
1‑1. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Shakhtar came through the finding-out well against Ferencvaros.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Luca Meirelles, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Artem Bondarenko scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Illia Krupskyi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Gocholeishvili 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Shakhtar told Giorgi Gocholeishvili something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Heorhiy Dovbyk after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
26 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
2‑2 against Admira Wacker, 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.
“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.
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 7.78 for the rest of it.
Newertton 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.
22 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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 7.93 for the rest of it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.1M — a club that wants Arinaldo Rrapaj enough to be asked twice.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Shakhtar have 3 straight wins of it.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Shakhtar
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
“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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
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.
$1.1M on the table at Metalist. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.5M — a club that wants Kyrylo Dihtiar enough to be asked twice.
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, wages agreed, and Dukla Prague waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
With 6 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.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 Álvaro Fernández is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Shakhtar, another week without a signature from Kyrylo Fesiun.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hapoel Tel Aviv can pretend not to have heard.
Prosper Obah 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Hapoel Tel Aviv are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Shahar Piven is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hisham Layous trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Prosper Obah 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.
Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Hapoel Tel Aviv than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Hapoel Tel Aviv would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Prosper Obah 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artur Miranyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Stav Toriel signs something — a contract at Hapoel Tel Aviv or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Hapoel Tel Aviv will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Xande Silva
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Tel Aviv will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Prosper Obah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nobody at Hapoel Tel Aviv 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 did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Hapoel Tel Aviv will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hapoel Tel Aviv will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Prosper Obah 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 Hapoel Tel Aviv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hapoel Tel Aviv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hapoel Tel Aviv have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Prosper Obah 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.
Tal Archel 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Hapoel Tel Aviv told Prosper Obah something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Stav Toriel signs something — a contract at Hapoel Tel Aviv or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Douglas Owusu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
54 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
A brace, and Stav Toriel takes the afternoon — 9.06
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stav Toriel provided it, and the 9.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Prosper Obah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Hapoel Tel Aviv are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Nir Hemed could afford to be generous.
28 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrian Kraev and Hapoel Tel Aviv agree another 4 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Prosper Obah 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Or Israelov 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Hapoel Tel Aviv is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Douglas Owusu
MarketA year in the wrong dressing room for Dor Benyamini
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Prosper Obah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rapid Wien have kept their man, and Hapoel Tel Aviv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Hapoel Tel Aviv will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Assaf Tzur now has 25 of them across 233 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
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 Assaf Tzur is on it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Ziv Morgan
27 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hapoel Tel Aviv have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Stav Toriel scored in the 87th minute, Maccabi Netanya had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Hapoel Tel Aviv took the lot.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Prosper Obah 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.
Hapoel Tel Aviv asked and Bendel Insurance said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Niv Yehoshua 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 watch every Hapoel Tel Aviv game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hapoel Kiryat Shmona runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
12 matches without defeat, and then Maccabi Tel Aviv. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at Hapoel Tel Aviv until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Nemanja Ljubisavljević reports back to Hapoel Tel Aviv with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Hapoel Tel Aviv asked and Maccabi Tel Aviv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I did not go to Hapoel Kiryat Shmona to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hapoel Tel Aviv and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 29 matches say the rest.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Hapoel Tel Aviv know which stage they are at.
“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.
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.
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.
Add another name to the list: Hapoel Tel Aviv have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Prosper Obah. The answer from Shakhtar has not changed — yet.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Artem Bondarenko provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Newertton 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 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Gocholeishvili 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.
“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.
Newertton 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.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Polissia in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
“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.