Marked for Timofey Shemenev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market3 Jul 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Victor Kiselev 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.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mashuk have kept their man, and Shakhter Donetsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Jul 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Shakhter Donetsk, another week without a signature from Victor Kiselev.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
Luca Martinazzi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Olle Oldaeus slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Olle Oldaeus is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout22 May 2028
This is not rotation. Mateusz Karol has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Shakhter Donetsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad22 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout22 May 2028
Kamil Kaczówka 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 Shakhter Donetsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad22 May 2028
Kamil Kaczówka is not doing himself any favours
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 May 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Ivan Gorbachev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market8 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom8 May 2028
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad8 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andriy Vyskrebentsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kamil Kaczówka, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 May 2028
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.
The dugout8 May 2028
The manager's exit leaves Timofey Shemenev exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Timofey Shemenev is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Squad8 May 2028
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Shakhter Donetsk would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market8 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Victor Kiselev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Shakhter Donetsk is running low.
Match15 Apr 2028
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Shakhter Donetsk are no longer polite ones.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Sergey Mokrousov: 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.” Shakhter Donetsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market17 Apr 2028
Marek Hamrák has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhter Donetsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Victor Kiselev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andriy Vyskrebentsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
Wages eat 270% of everything Shakhter Donetsk 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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“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
Crisis
Market27 Mar 2028
Olle Oldaeus hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Mateusz Karol has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Shakhter Donetsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad27 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matteo Antignani, and the manager let it.
Market27 Mar 2028
He is 20, and nobody at Shakhter Donetsk signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market27 Mar 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Timofey Shemenev has his answer from Shakhter Donetsk; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andriy Vyskrebentsev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market27 Mar 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Alexandros Exarchos may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sevastopol is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 May 2027
Amet Dugu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Stepanovich, and the manager let it.
Squad24 May 2027
31 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom24 May 2027
Wages swallow 129% of the Sevastopol income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Squad24 May 2027
Ilja Antsiferov 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.
Squad24 May 2027
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout24 May 2027
Leonid Zagrebelny has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sevastopol 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 dugout24 May 2027
Bekkhan Aliev 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 Bekkhan Aliev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Apr 2027
Sevastopol win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Legion will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.72, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match24 Apr 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Sevastopol did not have in the autumn.
Market26 Apr 2027
Alexandr Popov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sevastopol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Apr 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 Sevastopol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Apr 2027
A 3‑2 win over Legion, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Yury Maximov
“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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Sevastopol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Kharlan 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.