Marked for Yehor Kaptenko
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 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 Polissia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
Top-of-the-table clash for Polissia
Shakhtar next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mykyta Kravchenko, and the manager let it.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
“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 Polissia, and 4 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Polissia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yehor Kaptenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Bohdan Mykhailichenko’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Polissia needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market11 Oct 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vladyslav Veleten’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Polissia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eduard Sarapii, and the manager let it.
Squad10 May 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yehor Kaptenko and Polissia agree another 4 years.
Squad10 May 2027
Gedion Constancia 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
Heorhii Bushchan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Polissia 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 dugout10 May 2027
Heorhii Bushchan asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market10 May 2027
The name of Oleksandr Filippov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Polissia say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad10 May 2027
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
Squad10 May 2027
Yehor Kaptenko 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
Steady
The dugout3 May 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Polissia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Loan watch3 May 2027
The goals keep arriving from Ihor Krasnopir’s exile
16 goals in 29 games at Puszcza Niepołomice — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Polissia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad3 May 2027
Eduard Sarapii 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.
Squad3 May 2027
A row about effort at Polissia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mykyta Kravchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 May 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yehor Kaptenko and Polissia agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout3 May 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Oleksandr Nazarenko is on it.
The dugout3 May 2027
Eduard Sarapii asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad3 May 2027
“I will play as long as the body lets me and stop the day it does not.” He is 40, with 277 appearances behind him, and the club has to plan for a decision that is not yet made.
Market3 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mykola Haiduchyk’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Polissia
Eduard Sarapii and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match2 Jan 2027
Dynamo Kyiv left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout4 Jan 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vito Mannone and Polissia agree another 1 years.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“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 Polissia know it.
The dugout4 Jan 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 0‑1 Oleksiy Kulach left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Yevhen Volynets'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.