Kyrylo Kovalets 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 Petros Kaloutsikidis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Epicentr 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Epicentr is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Epicentr can pretend not to have heard.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Epicentr will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Gratas Sirgėdas has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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.
Kyrylo Kovalets 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 Petros Kaloutsikidis 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 Kyrylo Kovalets 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ihor Kyriukhantsev has written the date down.
“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 Epicentr will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Epicentr is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Kyrylo Kovalets and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksii Khakhliov 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 dugout8 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Vitalii Kholod's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“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 Epicentr, 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 Epicentr 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 Prosper Obah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maksym Yevpak, and the manager let it.
Loan watch1 May 2028
Ivan Bendera is tired of being somebody else's player
“Another season, another badge, another dressing room to win over. I would like one pre-season at Epicentr where somebody actually looks at me.” He belongs to LNZ until the spell ends; the argument is with the club that owns him.
Nobody at Epicentr 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.
Kyrylo Kovalets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Oleksandr Klymets 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yevhen Zaporozhets is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jiovany Ramos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Epicentr the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Kyrylo Kovalets and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Nobody at Epicentr 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Epicentr 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 Prosper Obah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Geovane is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
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 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 Epicentr know it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Vadym Sydun 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Prosper Obah will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Epicentr escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mathieu Scalet has, at Epicentr, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Epicentr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Valeriy Luchkevych and Epicentr agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Universitatea Craiova have kept their man, and Epicentr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Epicentr, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Stepan Hryhorashchuk has come up in conversations Epicentr were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksii Khakhliov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Metalist were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Kyrylo Kovalets 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 Oleksii Khakhliov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Jiovany Ramos.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
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.” Ihor Zinchenko kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Epicentr can pretend not to have heard.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Epicentr can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Epicentr can tell you which week it ends in.
“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 Epicentr, and it is not being withdrawn.
Kyrylo Kovalets 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 Oleksii Khakhliov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ihor Zinchenko to a room that had heard them before.
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.
0‑3 to Obolon, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Epicentr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout6 Dec 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 0‑3 Ihor Zinchenko left the room before anybody could ask which.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Oleksandr Klymets 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 Oleksii Khakhliov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ihor Zinchenko after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jiovany Ramos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Polissia next, and one man in the Epicentr dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Kyrylo Kovalets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The new man at Epicentr has worked with Vadym Sydun before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
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 trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Epicentr has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Epicentr know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Epicentr that is a harder question to answer.
“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 Epicentr will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Epicentr 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 Epicentr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleh Bilyk, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksii Khakhliov 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 new man at Epicentr has worked with Vadym Sydun before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Carlos Rojas's mistake
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksii Khakhliov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutVadym Sydun back under a manager who knows him
Loan watchIvan Bendera is tired of being somebody else's player
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Maksym Burlakov obliged against Veres. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Epicentr.
0‑5 to Shakhtar, 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Epicentr have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Epicentr is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Kyrylo Kovalets 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Rojas 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.57, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $50.1K — a club that wants Roman Savchenko enough to be asked twice.
$46.0K on the table at Shakhtar. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon Ceberio 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. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Epicentr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Epicentr will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oleksandr Shopronku and Epicentr agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Epicentr, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Epicentr, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Epicentr know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Epicentr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon Ceberio 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 goal that put Poltava ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Epicentr equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Ihor Zinchenko could afford to be generous.
Kyrylo Kovalets 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 Michael Ameyaw was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ihor Zinchenko after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Epicentr 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 shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“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 Epicentr will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Ameyaw was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.11 — 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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
Kyrylo Kovalets 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 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon Ceberio 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Michael Ameyaw was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.18. 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 94. Kudrivka had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It needed Michael Ameyaw to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Kudrivka, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ihor Zinchenko chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Kyrylo Kovalets and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Jiovany Ramos 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 squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Maksym Yevpak’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Epicentr needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Epicentr would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Epicentr. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Abdul Mendy has written the date down.
1‑4 to Zorya, 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.
“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 Epicentr, and it is not being withdrawn.
Oleh Bilyk 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jon Ceberio 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.
Epicentr asked and Karpaty said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.