Marked for Bruno Baldini
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Jun 2028
Atromitos come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Poltava did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market19 Jun 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Poltava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words exchanged at Poltava
Andrii Kozhukhar 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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
$54.0K on the table at Shakhtar. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market19 Jun 2028
Everyone has stopped pretending: Polissia will make the call about Mykyta Kononov this week. Poltava have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Market19 Jun 2028
The name of Mykyta Minchev has come up in conversations Poltava were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Ignacio Laquintana 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.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
Nyva will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Marian Bats has pre-agreed a move to Poltava, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets19 Jun 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 May 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market8 May 2028
“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.
The dugout8 May 2028
This is not rotation. Mykyta Kononov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Poltava is pretending otherwise.
Squad8 May 2028
Words exchanged at Poltava
Marian Shved 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Ignacio Laquintana 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 dugout8 May 2028
The manager's exit leaves Marian Shved exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Marian Shved is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugout8 May 2028
Roman Paparyga knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Poltava, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Loan watch8 May 2028
8 shut-outs in 29 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Daniil Yermolov has been having a lot of them.
Squad8 May 2028
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Poltava says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Apr 2028
The mood at Poltava 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.
Match17 Apr 2028
Poltava sink to position 16
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market17 Apr 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Poltava can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Poltava
Kristian Bilovar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Poltava
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio Laquintana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market17 Apr 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Stanislav Shevchuk 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.
Market17 Apr 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bohdan Pikhalyonok has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market17 Apr 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Oleksiy Karavayev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad17 Apr 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Poltava can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Feb 2028
13 matches without a win for Poltava
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Poltava are no longer polite ones.
Market14 Feb 2028
“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 Poltava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match12 Feb 2028
7 matches without a goal for Poltava
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Mykyta Kononov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Poltava is pretending otherwise.
Squad14 Feb 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 Poltava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Polissia have kept their man, and Poltava go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match12 Feb 2028
0‑1 to Polissia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Feb 2028
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“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; Poltava are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Dec 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market20 Dec 2027
“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 Poltava, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
This is not rotation. Mykyta Kononov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Poltava is pretending otherwise.
Match18 Dec 2027
5 matches without a win for Poltava
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Poltava are no longer polite ones.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A falling-out at Poltava
Marian Shved and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Dec 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 Poltava know it.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Poltava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mykyta Kononov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match18 Dec 2027
A bad afternoon for Poltava against Veres
0‑1 to Veres, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Dec 2027
A fracture rules Maksym Marusych out for 75 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Poltava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market13 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Poltava can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Dec 2027
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Up for the corner, and Serhii Lebediev delivers — 7.78
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Serhii Lebediev scored, was marked 7.78, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Match11 Dec 2027
4 matches without a win for Poltava
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Poltava are no longer polite ones.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Mykyta Sheleketa is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Marian Shved 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 Poltava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Looking ahead13 Dec 2027
Everything rides on Veres
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Poltava know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
In brief
-
The dugout
The manager makes an example of Bruno Baldini
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
-
Loan watch
7 clean sheets on loan for Mykyta Minchev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Oct 2027
12 matches without a win for Poltava
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Poltava are no longer polite ones.
The terraces1 Nov 2027
The mood at Poltava 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.
Match1 Nov 2027
Poltava sink to position 16
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad1 Nov 2027
16 days out for Yan Shevchenko after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Poltava will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market1 Nov 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Poltava can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Poltava
Marian Shved 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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
115% of the income goes out in wages at Poltava
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bruno Baldini, and the manager let it.
Market1 Nov 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Poltava, another week without a signature from Valerii Voskonyan.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A fracture rules Yan Shevchenko out for 38 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Poltava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets11 Oct 2027
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets11 Oct 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Marian Shved 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A move Volodymyr Rudiuk would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Volodymyr Rudiuk is living that version at Poltava, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“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; Poltava are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Valerii Voskonyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Aug 2027
“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 Poltava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Poltava
Marian Shved 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.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
This is not rotation. Vadym Pidlepych has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Poltava is pretending otherwise.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Volodymyr Odariuk commits to Poltava for another 2 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Poltava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmytro Plakhtyr is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Poltava can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market9 Aug 2027
No place for Illia Ukhan in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Illia Ukhan has his answer from Poltava; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Jun 2027
“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 Poltava, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
This is not rotation. Mykyta Kononov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Poltava is pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Andrii Kozhukhar 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Oleksandr Vivdych 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“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; Poltava are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Poltava will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 May 2027
Valerii Sad 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 Poltava can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 May 2027
A falling-out at Poltava
Andrii Kozhukhar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
The medical room confirms 18 days on the sidelines for Maksym Marusych, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad24 May 2027
Eduardo Guerrero 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 dugout24 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 Andrii Savenkov is on it.
Market24 May 2027
Poltava have made Mykyta Kononov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout24 May 2027
Illia Ukhan has been promised minutes
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 Illia Ukhan has written the date down.
Market24 May 2027
The name of Maksym Marusych keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Poltava say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout24 May 2027
Bruno Baldini knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Poltava, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Apr 2027
Valerii Sad 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 Poltava can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
This is not rotation. Mykyta Kononov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Poltava is pretending otherwise.
Market12 Apr 2027
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Vladyslav Danylenko is a Poltava player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Poltava
Andrii Kozhukhar 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Poltava
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduardo Guerrero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Poltava can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad12 Apr 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout12 Apr 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Mar 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Metalurh Zaporizhzhia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Poltava is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market8 Mar 2027
“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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Oleksandr Piatov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Poltava have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
This is not rotation. Mykola Buzhyn has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Poltava is pretending otherwise.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Valerii Voskonyan and Poltava agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Poltava
Argyris Darelas 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.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Poltava
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrii Kozhukhar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Valerii Voskonyan, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Feb 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Poltava people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad15 Feb 2027
18 days out for Andrii Savenkov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Poltava will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market15 Feb 2027
“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 Poltava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Everything agreed with Levski, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market15 Feb 2027
The fee is $430.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Veres drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Argyris Darelas 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Bruno Baldini 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. Bruno Baldini has, at Poltava, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Match13 Feb 2027
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.