Marked for Teboho Mkhize
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Teboho Mkhize
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nyva lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market9 Oct 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 Nyva can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Artem Habelok and Nyva agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Tempers go at Nyva
Artem Habelok 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Nyva training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maksym Mekhaniv 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 ratings9 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces9 Oct 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Valentyn Napuda has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Boardroom9 Oct 2028
133% of the income goes out in wages at Nyva
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.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Marked 7.48. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces2 Oct 2028
The mood at Nyva 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.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
Pressure builds in the Nyva boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad2 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Teboho Mkhize
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nyva lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom2 Oct 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Artem Habelok and Nyva agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Oct 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 Nyva this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Nyva's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nyva has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 38. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Sep 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Teboho Mkhize
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nyva lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match25 Sep 2028
Nyva sink to position 16
4 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match23 Sep 2028
Nyva cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Tempers go at Nyva
Artem Habelok 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.
Boardroom25 Sep 2028
Nyva counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Nyva now.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Andrii Boriachuk 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.
Match23 Sep 2028
A bad afternoon for Nyva against Podillia
0‑1 to Podillia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Nyva's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Nyva has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Sep 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Teboho Mkhize
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nyva lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match16 Sep 2028
Nowhere to hide for Nyva
0‑3 against Rukh, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market18 Sep 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 Nyva, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Tempers go at Nyva
Andrii Boriachuk 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Maksym Mekhaniv 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of Ihor Snurnitsyn
“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.
Boardroom18 Sep 2028
Doors closed at Nyva
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Market18 Sep 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Maksym Mekhaniv’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.