Marked for Ivan Kryvtsov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom28 Feb 2033
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Dynamo Kyiv
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market28 Feb 2033
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dynamo Kyiv people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market28 Feb 2033
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Probiy had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market28 Feb 2033
“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.
Boardroom28 Feb 2033
Window shuts: 2 in, 9 out at Dynamo Kyiv
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market28 Feb 2033
The offer from FH for Maksym Chekh was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad28 Feb 2033
Nazar Voloshyn and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Feb 2033
Words at Dynamo Kyiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Trevoh Chalobah 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 dugout28 Feb 2033
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Feb 2033
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Mykola Shaparenko will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Dynamo Kyiv escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Market14 Feb 2033
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dynamo Kyiv have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market14 Feb 2033
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings14 Feb 2033
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market14 Feb 2033
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dynamo Kyiv can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout14 Feb 2033
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dynamo Kyiv may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market14 Feb 2033
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad14 Feb 2033
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dynamo Kyiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom14 Feb 2033
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Jan 2033
Defences have started doubling up on Matvii Ponomarenko
33 goals and a season average of 7.67 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad24 Jan 2033
5 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match22 Jan 2033
Kolos will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Dynamo Kyiv were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The dugout24 Jan 2033
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dynamo Kyiv may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings24 Jan 2033
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.39 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match22 Jan 2033
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dynamo Kyiv have 4 straight wins of it.
Market24 Jan 2033
Nazar Voloshyn wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Dynamo Kyiv hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad24 Jan 2033
58 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market24 Jan 2033
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.