Marked for Jan Frankowski
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom16 Jun 2042
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Epicentr
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market16 Jun 2042
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Epicentr is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad16 Jun 2042
Stanislav Sotnichuk 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.
Squad16 Jun 2042
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shachar Rosen 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.
Squad16 Jun 2042
Nik Pirc knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Epicentr, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad16 Jun 2042
The manager has not finished forgetting Fabián Chazarreta's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Sep 2041
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Sep 2041
Maksym Henhalo damages knee ligaments — 67 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 67 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.
Match21 Sep 2041
Beaten 0‑4 by Metalurh Zaporizhzhia, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match23 Sep 2041
Epicentr are in real trouble now
Position 15, 9 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad23 Sep 2041
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Epicentr may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Sep 2041
Nikita Fedotov 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.
Boardroom23 Sep 2041
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Market23 Sep 2041
Epicentr have made Jose Ramirez available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Player ratings23 Sep 2041
Successful dribbles: 9. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jul 2041
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 Jul 2041
Maksym Henhalo damages knee ligaments — 130 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 130 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.
Market22 Jul 2041
“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.
Squad22 Jul 2041
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Epicentr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jul 2041
Miracle Williams 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.
Market22 Jul 2041
Metalist are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Epicentr will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Jun 2041
Bartol Kunert damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Squad24 Jun 2041
Nikita Fedotov breaks a bone — 112 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 112 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 Jun 2041
“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.
Squad24 Jun 2041
Jan Frankowski: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Epicentr have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad24 Jun 2041
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Epicentr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market24 Jun 2041
Metalist are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Epicentr will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Jan 2041
The wait goes on for Epicentr
20 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.
Boardroom7 Jan 2041
Epicentr interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Match5 Jan 2041
0‑6 to Oleksandriya, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad7 Jan 2041
436 appearances across 17 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market7 Jan 2041
“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 Epicentr, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Jan 2041
Jan Frankowski: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Epicentr have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 Jan 2041
Nikita Fedotov 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.
Match5 Jan 2041
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Epicentr and Oleksandriya in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad7 Jan 2041
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Eskinja 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces5 Nov 2040
The mood at Epicentr 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.
Match3 Nov 2040
11 matches without a win for Epicentr
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Epicentr are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Nov 2040
A fracture rules Miracle Williams out for 17 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Epicentr will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom5 Nov 2040
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Epicentr can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match31 Oct 2040
The cup run ends for Epicentr
2‑3 against Rukh, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market5 Nov 2040
“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 Epicentr, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings5 Nov 2040
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.15, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad5 Nov 2040
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Epicentr may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match3 Nov 2040
Epicentr leaking at the back
7 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.