Marked for Anton Maksymchuk
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Feb 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Serhii Kameniev 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.
Market26 Feb 2029
Kryvbas pay $270.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Bukovyna cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad26 Feb 2029
21 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market26 Feb 2029
Wout Dumfries is 18, and Bukovyna have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Jan 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.34, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Marked 9.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match27 Jan 2029
Podillia made Bukovyna work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
Bukovyna cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad29 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Serhii Kameniev
“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.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Marked 8.32 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Market29 Jan 2029
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Vitalii Koltsov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Bukovyna.
Squad29 Jan 2029
51 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jul 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bukovyna may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market17 Jul 2028
Business is business: Oleh Ilin goes
Polissia paid $220.0K and Bukovyna took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Taras Sakiv in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bukovyna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Jul 2028
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market17 Jul 2028
Anton Maksymchuk is 20, and Bukovyna have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad17 Jul 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
Boardroom26 Jun 2028
Pressure builds in the Inhulets boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad26 Jun 2028
The medical room confirms 43 days on the sidelines for Stanislav-Nuri Malysh, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Anton Zhylkin 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.