Marked for Viktor Kulach
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Jul 2031
“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 The request is on a desk at Vorskla, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
Vorskla have gone to Dynamo Kyiv with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market7 Jul 2031
Only the photograph left for Mateusz Białka
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateusz Białka will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vorskla the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dynamo Kyiv is saying, and nobody at Vorskla is enjoying the guessing.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Jesse Kilo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vorskla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Andrii Kitela 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.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Jul 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Viktor Kulach and Vorskla agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
Vorskla have made the call to Polissia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
The offer went to Dynamo Kyiv this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market30 Jun 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vorskla they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Jun 2031
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Vorskla are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad30 Jun 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 Vorskla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Andrés Vargas 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.
The dugout30 Jun 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vadym Chervak, and the manager let it.
Market30 Jun 2031
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Dynamo Kyiv have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad30 Jun 2031
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Vorskla will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Jun 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rukh waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vorskla is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
The clubs have shaken hands with Dynamo Kyiv; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets23 Jun 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.
Market23 Jun 2031
Vorskla spend $880.0K to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $880.0K has been paid because Vladyslav Supriaha is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Market23 Jun 2031
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Vorskla have paid $610.0K for Oleksandr Saputin, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
The offer went to Zorya this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market23 Jun 2031
Oleksandriya paid $1.6M and Vorskla took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
Vorskla offered $520.0K; Chornomorets said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad23 Jun 2031
A falling-out at Vorskla
Andrii Kitela and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
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Squad
Vorskla are still strangers to each other
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Squad
Artem Korzh signs on for more
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Mar 2031
Only the photograph left for Roman Didyk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roman Didyk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dynamo Kyiv the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market17 Mar 2031
“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 Dynamo Kyiv, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Mar 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pierre Mounguengue and Dynamo Kyiv agree another 5 years.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Pierre Mounguengue and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Words at Dynamo Kyiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostiantyn Vivcharenko 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.
Loan watch17 Mar 2031
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Dynamo Kyiv, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Boardroom17 Mar 2031
Wages eat 86% of everything Dynamo Kyiv earn
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.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
Yacine Adli gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yacine Adli is on it.
Squad17 Mar 2031
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Feb 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dynamo Kyiv people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market3 Feb 2031
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market3 Feb 2031
Kai Cipot 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 Dynamo Kyiv can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Feb 2031
A one-man rearguard from Felipe Parra
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout3 Feb 2031
Viktor Kulach: 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.” Dynamo Kyiv have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Savane Ousmane Savané has agreed terms with Poltava for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad3 Feb 2031
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.
Squad3 Feb 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oleksandr Tymchyk and Dynamo Kyiv agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Feb 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Jun 2030
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Newcastle United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dynamo Kyiv is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market24 Jun 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Jun 2030
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Dynamo Kyiv can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Kostiantyn Vivcharenko 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.
Market24 Jun 2030
The phone has started ringing about Will Smallbone again, and this time the name on the line is Zlin. Dynamo Kyiv are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad24 Jun 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Viktor Kulach and Dynamo Kyiv agree another 4 years.
The dugout24 Jun 2030
Yacine Adli has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dynamo Kyiv 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.
Boardroom24 Jun 2030
Dynamo Kyiv bank $313.3K from an old deal
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Vladyslav Herych is somebody else's player now, and $313.3K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
The dugout24 Jun 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Viktor Kulach, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Jan 2030
A 3‑0 win over Metalist, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
Viktor Kulach, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 8.17
A mark of 8.17 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
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 7.90 for the rest of it.
Market14 Jan 2030
Ventspils come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Dynamo Kyiv did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market14 Jan 2030
Yacine Adli wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Dynamo Kyiv hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market14 Jan 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dynamo Kyiv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Jan 2030
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.