Marked for Mark Hushynets
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Apr 2038
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ahrobiznes can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Apr 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ahrobiznes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mark Hushynets and Ahrobiznes agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom5 Apr 2038
The owner puts $753.5K into Ahrobiznes
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad5 Apr 2038
Valentyn Tkach 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.
Boardroom5 Apr 2038
Ahrobiznes are $15.3M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2038
20 matches without a win for Ahrobiznes
The run now stands at 20, and the questions being asked around Ahrobiznes are no longer polite ones.
The terraces4 Jan 2038
The mood at Ahrobiznes has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market4 Jan 2038
“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 The request is on a desk at Ahrobiznes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings4 Jan 2038
Andrii Riznyk, 37, rolls back the years — 8.55
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.55 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad4 Jan 2038
Andrii Riznyk 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2038
$759.1K of the owner's money at Ahrobiznes
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad4 Jan 2038
Agustín Montiel 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.
Match2 Jan 2038
1‑2 to Inhulets, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom4 Jan 2038
Wages eat 237% of everything Ahrobiznes 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Oct 2037
No end in sight to Ahrobiznes's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ahrobiznes has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad2 Nov 2037
A fracture rules Agustín Montiel out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ahrobiznes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom2 Nov 2037
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Kostiantyn Zinchenko has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match31 Oct 2037
Chastening afternoon for Ahrobiznes
A 0‑3 beating by Nyva was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Boardroom2 Nov 2037
Pressure builds in the Ahrobiznes boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market2 Nov 2037
“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 Ahrobiznes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom2 Nov 2037
The Ahrobiznes board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad2 Nov 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andrii Riznyk commits to Ahrobiznes for another 2 years.
Match31 Oct 2037
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces12 Oct 2037
Anger at Ahrobiznes spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match10 Oct 2037
No end in sight to Ahrobiznes's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ahrobiznes has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings12 Oct 2037
A brace, and Bohdan Kozak takes the afternoon — 8.68
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bohdan Kozak provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market12 Oct 2037
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2037
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.
Squad12 Oct 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ahrobiznes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Oct 2037
Vorskla left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Oct 2037
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Ahrobiznes are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces14 Sep 2037
Anger at Ahrobiznes spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market14 Sep 2037
“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 ratings14 Sep 2037
A chastening introduction for Daniel Bourgeois — 5.79
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.79 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Match12 Sep 2037
No end in sight to Ahrobiznes's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ahrobiznes has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 Sep 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ahrobiznes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Sep 2037
1‑3 to Bukovyna, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Valentyn Tkach 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.
Match12 Sep 2037
No clean sheets in sight for Ahrobiznes
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.