Marked for Stanislav Oksenenko
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Inhulets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Nov 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 Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanislav Ursolov 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 dugout15 Nov 2027
A promise honoured at Inhulets
Something was said to Maksym Luniov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleh Manastyrnyi, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Inhulets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market15 Nov 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Dmytro Panchenko has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Inhulets.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
Nyva next, and one man in the Inhulets dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market15 Nov 2027
The name of Bohdan Mohylnyi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Inhulets say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Aug 2027
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match25 Aug 2027
Inhulets through in the cup
A 2‑2 win over Rukh, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match28 Aug 2027
Nowhere to hide for Inhulets
1‑4 against UCSA, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Marked 8.21 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.
Market30 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Inhulets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Chornomorets keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The deal with Karpaty is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Match28 Aug 2027
4 matches without a win for Inhulets
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Inhulets are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Inhulets 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Kolos is saying, and nobody at Inhulets is enjoying the guessing.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Illia Hadzhuk 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 targets19 Jul 2027
Inhulets offered $18.0K; Polissia 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Kryvbas: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Artem Benediuk knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artem Benediuk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Murilo Rian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Nobody at Inhulets 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.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jul 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Inhulets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bukovyna is saying, and nobody at Inhulets is enjoying the guessing.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
6 new faces, and Inhulets 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Inhulets academy
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Market5 Jul 2027
Inhulets have made Serhii Kyslenko available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleksii Slutskyi, and the manager let it.
Market5 Jul 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Jun 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Inhulets have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
No thanks: Nika Gagnidze rejects the move
Inhulets had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Kolos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Kolos; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with Kudrivka, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dynamo Kyiv have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jun 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 Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch21 Jun 2027
29 appearances at Feniks and the goals keep coming. Inhulets are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 May 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 Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout31 May 2027
Artem Benediuk knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Inhulets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market31 May 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alisson Oliveira Da Silva did not need any: 7.73, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
$1.0M 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.
The terraces8 Feb 2027
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.
Match6 Feb 2027
A 1‑0 win over Prykarpattia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
A loan enquiry to LNZ: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Inhulets have made the call to Metalist. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Inhulets have made the call to Dynamo Kyiv. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Mykhailo Khromei will call it something else in private.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Aug 2026
The small margins put Inhulets out
Out, 0‑1 to Polissia, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The deal with Obolon is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Gornik Zabrze keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The dugout31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Inhulets
9 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A mark of 7.54, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad31 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 Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Anton Stepanenko was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Inhulets dressing room was either.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Nobody at Inhulets is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $537.0K — a club that wants Kiril Popov enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to Chornomorets 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Vitalii Dubilei 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 targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to Shakhtar 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
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.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Vorskla, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.