24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Epicentr lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 35. 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Metalurh Zaporizhzhia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Epicentr will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Epicentr can pretend not to have heard.
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 phone has started ringing about Ivan Bendera again, and this time the name on the line is Obolon. Epicentr are listening politely and promising nothing.
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Epicentr lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 Jon Ceberio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Obolon held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Epicentr answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Epicentr lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Epicentr has been clear about where Jon Ceberio stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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.
The dugout4 Jan 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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Artem Shevchenko to a room that had heard them before.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Obolon in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
89 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Epicentr lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Minute 93, against Karpaty, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Taras Boyko 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.
10 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.
3 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad28 Sep 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Artem Shevchenko after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Kudrivka 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Radnicki Nis keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Defensores have kept their man, and Epicentr go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Kryvbas had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Epicentr, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.