Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicholas Osei-Bonsu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Livyi Bereh the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Nicholas Osei-Bonsu has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Nazar Voloshyn 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 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Livyi Bereh know it.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.76 for the rest of it.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Oleh Kryvoruchko 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ruslan Kulach commits to Livyi Bereh for another 3 years.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Anton Shevchuk, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutAndrii Yakymiv is still being punished for one mistake
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.
Oleh Kryvoruchko 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Livyi Bereh, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Livyi Bereh would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
In brief
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Diego
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Michalis Pourliotopoulos has, at Livyi Bereh, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Michalis Pourliotopoulos is 20, and Livyi Bereh 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sidnney was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Volodymyr Sudakov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livyi Bereh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sidnney was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Livyi Bereh, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sidnney signs something — a contract at Livyi Bereh or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 4, 52 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
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.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Roman Rostokin are not good
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Livyi Bereh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Oleh Kryvoruchko 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrii Yakymiv was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Livyi Bereh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Serhii Kosovskyi has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutRuslan Kulach knocks on the manager's door