Marked for Illia Davydok
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings4 Aug 2031
Successful dribbles: 39. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings4 Aug 2031
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.96, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market4 Aug 2031
“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.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Squad4 Aug 2031
At 23 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.
Squad4 Aug 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Sebastián Vega arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sebastián Vega has, at Inhulets, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad4 Aug 2031
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitalii Dubilei was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match2 Aug 2031
It finished 2‑0, and it was Serhii Kyslenko’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Inhulets.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jul 2031
At 23 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.
Squad14 Jul 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Arsentiy Doroshenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Jul 2031
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitalii Dubilei was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout14 Jul 2031
The manager makes an example of Illia Davydok
“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.
Market14 Jul 2031
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Inhulets, another week without a signature from Maksym Mudryi.
The dugout14 Jul 2031
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.
Market14 Jul 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Serhii Kyslenko signs something — a contract at Inhulets or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout14 Jul 2031
Maksym Mudryi 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 Maksym Mudryi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Apr 2031
Only the photograph left for Andrii Vasin
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrii Vasin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Vitalii Dubilei 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.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Yaroslav Dziubko 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 dugout28 Apr 2031
“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.
Market28 Apr 2031
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market28 Apr 2031
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Inhulets know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
Yaroslav Dziubko 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.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
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 Anton Yevdokymov has written the date down.
Boardroom28 Apr 2031
Inhulets keep producing them
56 graduates from an academy now rated 7 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Feb 2031
Zorya come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Inhulets did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom24 Feb 2031
Inhulets close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad24 Feb 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Vitalii Dubilei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom24 Feb 2031
The numbers do not look good at Inhulets
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Hassan Muhammad 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.
Transfer targets24 Feb 2031
A loan enquiry to Shakhtar: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad24 Feb 2031
The formation has left Illia Davydok behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Inhulets will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad24 Feb 2031
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Inhulets will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
The manager makes an example of Andrea Cogliati
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Feb 2030
Every point is an argument now for Vorskla
Position 16 and 13 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market11 Feb 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Vorskla have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match9 Feb 2030
Chastening afternoon for Vorskla
A 0‑5 beating by Polissia was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market11 Feb 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout11 Feb 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match9 Feb 2030
The wait goes on for Vorskla
4 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.
Boardroom11 Feb 2030
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.
Market11 Feb 2030
Only the photograph left for Illia Davydok
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Illia Davydok will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vorskla the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 Feb 2030
A falling-out at Vorskla
Orest Kuzyk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.