The Metalist Chronicle
Squad2 Aug 2027
53 days out for Bohdan Boichuk after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metalist will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market2 Aug 2027
Terms done: Ruslan Sirenko is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Feniks waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Metalist is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market2 Aug 2027
Tony asks to leave Metalist
“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.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Metalist tie Heorhiy Haiduchok down
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Match31 Jul 2027
Nobody wants to play Metalist right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Metalist
Marian Shved and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Graduation day at Metalist
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The terraces2 Aug 2027
The crowd has taken to Ermir Rashica
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match31 Jul 2027
Ermir Rashica the difference as Metalist beat Bukovyna
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ermir Rashica. 2‑0 against Bukovyna, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
- Market Dmytro Stepanenko steps up from the Metalist academy
- Market Metalist promote Valentyn Lunyov from within
- Squad Ivan Kaliuzhnyi falls out with a teammate over standards