Marked for Mykhailo Burda
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match10 Apr 2034
Kudrivka up to position 1
59 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market10 Apr 2034
Mykhailo Kulyk has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kudrivka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Apr 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match13 Mar 2034
Kudrivka are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 59 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market13 Mar 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kudrivka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Mar 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2034
Mykhailo Kulyk 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.
Squad13 Mar 2034
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mykhailo Burda and Kudrivka agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad13 Mar 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Odrick Bisah, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 May 2033
Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.
Squad23 May 2033
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mykhailo Kulyk 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.
Squad23 May 2033
“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
Crisis
Squad25 Apr 2033
Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.
Squad25 Apr 2033
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Vertonghen 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.
Squad25 Apr 2033
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.