Marked for Vasyl Babenko
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 May 2032
Every point is an argument now for Poltava
Position 15 and 14 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.
Boardroom3 May 2032
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.
Market3 May 2032
Denys Smetana 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 Poltava can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 May 2032
A fracture rules Vasyl Babenko out for 16 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Poltava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout3 May 2032
“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.
Squad3 May 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oleh Veremiyenko and Poltava agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 May 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Poltava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2032
Words at Poltava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Smetana 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 dugout3 May 2032
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Sebastiano Bianchi is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces26 Apr 2032
Anger at Poltava 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.
Market26 Apr 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Poltava can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Apr 2032
A fracture rules Vasyl Babenko out for 23 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Poltava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom26 Apr 2032
The scrutiny sharpens at Poltava
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Poltava is running low.
Squad26 Apr 2032
A falling-out at Poltava
Mykola Buzhyn and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
The manager makes an example of Mykyta Minchev
“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.
Squad26 Apr 2032
A row about effort at Poltava
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yurii Tlumak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
Bohdan Kobzar has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Poltava 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.
Market26 Apr 2032
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bohdan Kobzar signs something — a contract at Poltava or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Sep 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad15 Sep 2031
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Poltava lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match13 Sep 2031
Beaten 1‑4 by Zorya, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Transfer targets15 Sep 2031
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.
Squad15 Sep 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Poltava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Sep 2031
33 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout15 Sep 2031
The manager makes an example of Mykyta Minchev
“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.
Boardroom15 Sep 2031
Doors closed at Poltava
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout15 Sep 2031
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oleh Vanat after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Sep 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vasyl Babenko
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Poltava lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match6 Sep 2031
Beaten 0‑3 by Oleksandriya, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad8 Sep 2031
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom8 Sep 2031
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Poltava 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.
Transfer targets8 Sep 2031
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Shakhtar keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad8 Sep 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Volodymyr Odariuk commits to Poltava for another 2 years.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Nazarii Vorobchak 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.
Transfer targets8 Sep 2031
Poltava asked and Athletic Bilbao said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout8 Sep 2031
The manager makes an example of Bohdan Kobzar
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Sep 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad1 Sep 2031
Vasyl Babenko damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Match27 Aug 2031
Poltava through in the cup
A 2‑1 win over Obolon, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match30 Aug 2031
Nowhere to hide for Poltava
0‑3 against LNZ, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match27 Aug 2031
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Poltava scored in the 120th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings1 Sep 2031
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.78, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market1 Sep 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Poltava can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets1 Sep 2031
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Feyenoord keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets1 Sep 2031
$410.0K was the most the club would pay and Shakhtar were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.