Marked for Charles Nainggolan
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
Viktor Korniienko 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.
Squad10 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chernihiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Heorhiy Karavayev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout10 May 2027
“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.
Squad10 May 2027
Too much change too quickly at Chernihiv
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout10 May 2027
Nikita Tepliakov 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Apr 2027
Chernihiv are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 58 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market26 Apr 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 The request is on a desk at Chernihiv, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Chernihiv may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Apr 2027
At 20, Bohdan Redushko is already the best thing here
An average of 7.12 in a first team he is several years too young for. Chernihiv have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Denys Tvardovskyi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Chernihiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Viktor Korniienko 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.
Market26 Apr 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Chernihiv, another week without a signature from Charles Nainggolan.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market26 Apr 2027
The Dmytro Kulyk story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dmytro Kulyk signs something — a contract at Chernihiv or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout22 Mar 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Chernihiv is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
Wages swallow 169% of the Chernihiv income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Chernihiv
Yaroslav-Avhustyn Pankivskyi 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Chernihiv
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Tepliakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yaroslav Protsenko, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Oleksandr Pshenychniuk did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match19 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Feniks
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.67, and 2 involvements.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Feniks
Oleksandr Chornomorets and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jewison Bennette 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.34 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Feniks and Nyva take a point apiece
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market21 Dec 2026
Charles Nainggolan is 18, 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Christian Meunier reports back to KV Oostende with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at KV Oostende until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at KV Oostende training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dedryck Lukaku 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 targets7 Sep 2026
KV Oostende asked and KAA Gent said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Eden Onana is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. KV Oostende will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Charles Nainggolan commits to KV Oostende for another 3 years.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sander Coopman, and the manager let it.