Marked for Daniel Vernattus
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Feb 2027
Metalist finish in position 8
41 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Anderson Pico out for 42 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metalist will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market22 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
José Mosquera: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metalist have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Marked 7.68 at 18, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
Metalist 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Metalist
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 44. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Anderson Pico out for 52 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metalist will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad15 Feb 2027
16 goals and a season average of 7.39 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Metalist
Serhiy Bolbat and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
$78.0K was the most the club would pay and Oleksandriya 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.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match13 Feb 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Metalist can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vladyslav Bondar after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Karpaty waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Metalist is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad1 Feb 2027
67 days out for Anderson Pico after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metalist will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Metalist asked and Oleksandriya said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match30 Jan 2027
0‑1 to Chernihiv, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Metalist
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danylo Kaidalov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Nobody left the Metalist dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
In brief
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Squad
Xavi Ríos stays put
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Moustapha Djimet is in the works
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match23 Jan 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Victoriia Sumy, and it could have been more.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Anderson Pico out for 75 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metalist will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.42, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market25 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
No sign of nerves from Danylo Kaidalov at 20 — 7.82
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Danylo Kaidalov did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Metalist
Bohdan Boichuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
José Mosquera 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.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
96% of the income goes out in wages at Metalist
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
99 days out for Anderson Pico after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metalist will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Chuck wants to go home
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Metalist know it.
Market4 Jan 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Metalist, another week without a signature from Bohdan Boichuk.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Anderson Pico wants to finish where he started
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Metalist now know that too.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Artur Rudko gets picked when it counts
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 dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Vladyslav Bondar was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Metalist dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Dec 2026
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Metalist lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Anderson Pico out for 120 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metalist will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
13 goals and a season average of 7.35. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad14 Dec 2026
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.
Match12 Dec 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Rostyslav Taranukha’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Metalist.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.79, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Marked 8.06 — 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bohdan Boichuk
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metalist lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Anderson Pico out for 128 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metalist will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A brace, and Rostyslav Taranukha takes the afternoon — 8.64
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rostyslav Taranukha provided it, and the 8.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Matheus Destro pops up at the right end — 7.17
7.17, 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Metalist and Inhulets, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad7 Dec 2026
12 goals and a season average of 7.30. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Artur Rudko gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match5 Dec 2026
It needed Rostyslav Taranukha to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Inhulets, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Metalist
Daniil Khrypchuk 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A move Dan Cameron would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dan Cameron is living that version at Metalist, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match31 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Vorskla, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 126% of everything Metalist earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match31 Oct 2026
After 4 games, Metalist finally taste it again
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Vorskla; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Vladyslav Bondar left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
7.34, 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
He is 18 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
A 2‑0 win over Victoriia Sumy, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Marked 7.94. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Vladyslav Bondar kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Metalist
Bohdan Boichuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 147% of everything Metalist earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match3 Oct 2026
Nyva made Metalist work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Rostyslav Taranukha was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.59. 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Metalist
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danylo Kaidalov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Vladyslav Bondar could afford to be generous.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
When it matters, Artur Rudko plays
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
12 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match26 Sep 2026
3‑6 to Livyi Bereh, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Bohdan Boichuk takes the afternoon — 8.72
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bohdan Boichuk provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Metalist
Bohdan Boichuk 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Metalist and Livyi Bereh, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Transfer targets28 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Picerno have kept their man, and Metalist go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match26 Sep 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Metalist
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 8.25. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Metalist.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
Inquest at Metalist
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Squad
Danylo Kaidalov falls out with a teammate over standards
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Sep 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑2 against Feniks, and it could have been more.
Squad21 Sep 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Danylo Kaidalov at 20 — 7.92
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Danylo Kaidalov did not need any: 7.92, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Serhiy Bolbat, 33, rolls back the years — 8.07
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.07 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Bohdan Boichuk among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Bohdan Boichuk on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Metalist and Feniks.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Bohdan Boichuk was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.53. 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.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Metalist asked and Agropecuario Argentino said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑6 by Bukovyna, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A one-man rearguard from Artur Rudko
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Metalist 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Daniil Khrypchuk 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Metalist and Bukovyna, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Aug 2026
Cup progress for Metalist
A 1‑0 win over Podillia, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match26 Aug 2026
Metalist through in the cup
A 2‑0 win over Podillia, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Maksym Orikhovskyi did not need any: 8.32, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Metalist
Bohdan Boichuk 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Metalist offered $75.0K; Veres 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.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Oleksii Horiainov 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
Bohdan Boichuk 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Metalist have gone to Veres 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Metalist offered $21.0K; Nyva 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
2‑3 to Inhulets, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Metalist
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Myziuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Metalist 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Vladyslav Bondar left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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. Metalist will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Bohdan Biloshevskyi has just signed for Metalist, and for once the answer mattered.
Market17 Aug 2026
Metalist pay Kolos $290.0K for a proper upgrade
Kolos did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $290.0K for Daniil Khrypchuk, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Market17 Aug 2026
Metalist pay LNZ $180.0K for a proper upgrade
LNZ did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $180.0K for Kirill Samoilenko, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ahrobiznes made Metalist work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Danylo Kaidalov 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Metalist, another week without a signature from Bohdan Boichuk.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
$310.0K on the table at Bukovyna. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Petro Lutsiv commits to Metalist for another 4 years.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Metalist have gone to LNZ 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Kyrylo Dihtiar 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Oleksandr Myziuk 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Metalist caught on 92 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then UCSA scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Squad3 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Artur Rudko
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. Metalist will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 7.98. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.