Marked for Oleksandr Burenko
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Sep 2029
Andriy Tymchyk damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Match24 Sep 2029
Bukovyna are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 19 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Up for the corner, and Vasyl Hakman delivers — 7.72
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Vasyl Hakman scored, was marked 7.72, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Maksym Kucheriavyi 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.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
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Match22 Sep 2029
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Match22 Sep 2029
A 2‑2 draw with Poltava leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Oleksandr Burenko 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Aug 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
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Match11 Aug 2029
Whatever happens, Bukovyna do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo Riestra have kept their man, and Bukovyna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match11 Aug 2029
Nyva made Bukovyna work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
Ninety minutes of Vasyl Hakman at his very best
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Bukovyna.
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
A masterclass from Oleh Ilin
Marked 8.01 — 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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
34 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad13 Aug 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bohdan Pikhalyonok and Bukovyna agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Jul 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 Bukovyna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bukovyna may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Nobody could get near Oleh Ilin
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets30 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Simone Martino is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
Graduation day at Bukovyna
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market30 Jul 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ruslan Mykhailychenko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market30 Jul 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Artem Kocherhin 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.
Market30 Jul 2029
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mykola Bezus 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces23 Jul 2029
Anger at Bukovyna 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.
Market23 Jul 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Everything agreed with Rukh, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
No thanks: Artem Plysiuk rejects the move
Bukovyna had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Karpaty, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words exchanged at Bukovyna
Maksym Kucheriavyi 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
A late step up for Oleh Ilin
At 32 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
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Transfer targets23 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 May 2029
Nazariy Bezus damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
The dugout14 May 2029
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Squad14 May 2029
Words exchanged at Bukovyna
Oleksandr Hladkov 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.
Squad14 May 2029
A row about effort at Bukovyna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Burenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market14 May 2029
Bukovyna have let the market know Ivan Andreiko can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market14 May 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bukovyna, another week without a signature from Filippo Gallazzi.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Apr 2029
Ivan Andreiko 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 Bukovyna can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
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Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Bukovyna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Burenko 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.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Ivan Andreiko 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 Bukovyna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad23 Apr 2029
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Taras Sakiv keeps his manager's vote
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Taras Sakiv plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout16 Apr 2029
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Squad16 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Bukovyna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmytro Shynkarenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Apr 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Artem Bezprozvannyi commits to Bukovyna for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces2 Apr 2029
Supporters organise against the Bukovyna board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad2 Apr 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oleh Ilin and Bukovyna agree another 3 years.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
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Squad2 Apr 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 Bukovyna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Apr 2029
51 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Oleksandr Burenko 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 dugout2 Apr 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.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
Vadim Solovjov is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Market2 Apr 2029
The Oleh Ilin story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Oleh Ilin signs something — a contract at Bukovyna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Mar 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bukovyna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout12 Mar 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.
Market12 Mar 2029
“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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Alessandro Del Favero 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
A row about effort at Bukovyna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Burenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
Ivan Andreiko 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 Bukovyna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market12 Mar 2029
The Taras Sakiv talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bukovyna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad12 Mar 2029
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Bukovyna has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Squad12 Mar 2029
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager comes out for Serhii Petko
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Match
Nothing left to play for but pride at Bukovyna