Marked for Ruslan Kotchenko
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 May 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 Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 May 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets 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.
Boardroom13 May 2030
Wages eat 133% of everything Feniks earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Boardroom13 May 2030
The Feniks debt reaches $18.9M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad13 May 2030
Andrii Kusyi 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 Andrii Kusyi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad13 May 2030
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Onur Yıldırım 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom6 May 2030
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.
Market6 May 2030
“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.
Boardroom6 May 2030
The Feniks board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Market6 May 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom6 May 2030
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ruslan Kotchenko has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad6 May 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pavlo Orikhovskyi and Feniks agree another 2 years.
Squad6 May 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom6 May 2030
The owner puts $439.7K into Feniks
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.
Squad6 May 2030
Vladyslav Sydorenko 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom22 Apr 2030
Pressure builds in the Feniks boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market22 Apr 2030
“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 Apr 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market22 Apr 2030
Vikintas Simkus is 19, and Feniks 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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Nobody at Feniks will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad22 Apr 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces1 Apr 2030
The mood at Feniks 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.
Market1 Apr 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 Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets 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.
Boardroom1 Apr 2030
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Market1 Apr 2030
He is 20, and nobody at Feniks signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad1 Apr 2030
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
The terraces4 Mar 2030
The mood at Feniks 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.
Market4 Mar 2030
“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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets 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.
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
$476.0K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
No signings allowed at Feniks
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladyslav Sydorenko 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.
Market4 Mar 2030
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad4 Mar 2030
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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Valerii Kucherov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom25 Feb 2030
Pressure builds in the Feniks boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market25 Feb 2030
Nikita Dorosh 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 Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Feb 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valerii Kucherov 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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Nobody at Feniks will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Feb 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Feniks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market18 Feb 2030
Lasse Egholm 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 Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Market18 Feb 2030
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Feniks have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Valerii Kucherov 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.
Match16 Feb 2030
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom18 Feb 2030
220% of the income goes out in wages at Feniks
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.
Squad18 Feb 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pavlo Orikhovskyi, and the manager let it.
Squad18 Feb 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Jan 2030
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets 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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Valerii Kucherov 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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
“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.
Match12 Jan 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom14 Jan 2030
The Feniks debt reaches $19.2M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad14 Jan 2030
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.
The terraces14 Jan 2030
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Dec 2029
7 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Market17 Dec 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 Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Match15 Dec 2029
The goals have deserted Feniks
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Feniks can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets 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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Valerii Kucherov 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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pavlo Orikhovskyi, and the manager let it.
Boardroom17 Dec 2029
The Feniks debt reaches $18.5M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad17 Dec 2029
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.
Match15 Dec 2029
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Epicentr will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Nov 2029
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pavlo Orikhovskyi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
Ninety minutes of Maxime Pélican at his very best
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Feniks.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladyslav Sydorenko 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.
Boardroom19 Nov 2029
The Feniks debt reaches $18.3M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad19 Nov 2029
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.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
The one thing Misael Torres could not do
Shots: 11, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Oct 2029
Rostyslav Rusyn damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings22 Oct 2029
Age has not caught Jurgi Oteo yet — 8.43
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.43 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market22 Oct 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.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets 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.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavlo Orikhovskyi 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.
Player ratings22 Oct 2029
Marked 9.19 — 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.
Match20 Oct 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jurgi Oteo. 2‑0 against Podillia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad22 Oct 2029
“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.
Boardroom22 Oct 2029
The Feniks debt reaches $18.0M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Oct 2029
Rostyslav Rusyn damages knee ligaments — 45 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 45 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market1 Oct 2029
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match1 Oct 2029
Feniks are in real trouble now
Position 15, 7 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad1 Oct 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 Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valerii Kucherov 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.
Boardroom1 Oct 2029
Wages eat 160% of everything Feniks earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match29 Sep 2029
0‑2 to Metalurh Zaporizhzhia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 Oct 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleksandr Chornomorets, and the manager let it.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jun 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Feniks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match4 Jun 2029
Every point is an argument now for Feniks
Position 16 and 25 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.
Market4 Jun 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets 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.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
$352.1K of the owner's money at Feniks
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladyslav Sydorenko 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.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
The Feniks debt reaches $17.2M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Market4 Jun 2029
He is 19, and nobody at Feniks signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad4 Jun 2029
“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
Match4 Nov 2028
20 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 20, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
Pressure builds in the Feniks boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
Ihor Kocherhin has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Feniks can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market6 Nov 2028
Misael Torres 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 Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Nov 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Feniks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The Feniks board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad6 Nov 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 Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match4 Nov 2028
Bukovyna left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The owner puts $275.6K into Feniks
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.