Marked for Tymur Amilakhanov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 Nov 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A season average of 7.38 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match20 Nov 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Bukovyna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Karabin 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.
Match20 Nov 2027
Metalurh Zaporizhzhia left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout22 Nov 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 1‑2 Kostiantyn Boyko left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Bukovyna
Tymur Amilakhanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danylo Holub, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
A brace, and Yaroslav Karabin takes the afternoon — 8.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yaroslav Karabin provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad1 Nov 2027
A move Tymur Amilakhanov 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. Tymur Amilakhanov is living that version at Bukovyna, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Bukovyna
Taras Sakiv 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 ratings1 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match30 Oct 2027
Still nobody has beaten Bukovyna
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Yaroslav Karabin
12 goals and a season average of 7.29 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Bukovyna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Karabin 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.
Match30 Oct 2027
Prykarpattia made Bukovyna work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“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
Upbeat
Market5 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The deal with Dynamo Kyiv 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Serhii Lebediev is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A falling-out at UCSA
Pablo Castro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market5 Jul 2027
Add another name to the list: Poltava have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Serhii Lebediev. The answer from UCSA has not changed — yet.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at UCSA training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrii Stoliarchuk 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
The medical room confirms 19 days on the sidelines for Tymur Amilakhanov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the UCSA academy
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“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.