Marked for Rasmus Pagh
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Sep 2029
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Shakhter Donetsk are no longer polite ones.
Match1 Sep 2029
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 14 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The terraces3 Sep 2029
Anger at Shakhter Donetsk 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.
Market3 Sep 2029
“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.
Transfer targets3 Sep 2029
The deal with Chelyabinsk is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
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.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Transfer targets3 Sep 2029
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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miłosz Pacek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Jul 2029
No end in sight to Shakhter Donetsk's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
Match21 Jul 2029
7 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market23 Jul 2029
Rasmus Pagh 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.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Shakhter Donetsk have done the hard part with SKA Khabarovsk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
8 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Vladivostok have kept their man, and Shakhter Donetsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miłosz Pacek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Jul 2029
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.
Match21 Jul 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
Market16 Jul 2029
“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.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
The deal with Torpedo Vladimir is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Shakhter Donetsk
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Miłosz Pacek 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.
Market16 Jul 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Savely Putin has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Aug 2028
0‑3 to Astrakhan, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match26 Aug 2028
7 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.
Match26 Aug 2028
7 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shakhter Donetsk can tell you which week it ends in.
Market28 Aug 2028
Rasmus Pagh 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.
Squad28 Aug 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.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Miłosz Pacek 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 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Ivan Stolyarov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Shakhter Donetsk is pretending otherwise.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
Fedor Toporov faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.