Marked for Maksym Andrushchenko
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom28 May 2029
Pressure builds in the Sibenik boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market28 May 2029
Yusuf Muhammad has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sibenik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 May 2029
Maksym Andrushchenko 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.
Squad28 May 2029
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kevin De Ketelaere is living that version at Sibenik, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danijel Đurić 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.
Squad28 May 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 May 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mario Karadakić
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sibenik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market21 May 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joaquín Zappacosta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sibenik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 May 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mario Karadakić
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sibenik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom7 May 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market7 May 2029
Danijel Đurić has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sibenik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom7 May 2029
The Sibenik board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad7 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 May 2029
Danijel Đurić 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Apr 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mario Karadakić
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sibenik lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market30 Apr 2029
“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 Sibenik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom30 Apr 2029
Pressure builds in the Sibenik boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market30 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sibenik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Maksym Andrushchenko 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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Jeannot 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
Uneasy
Squad9 Apr 2029
Mario Karadakić damages knee ligaments — 61 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
Market9 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sibenik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Mar 2029
Mario Karadakić damages knee ligaments — 75 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 75 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.
Market26 Mar 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joaquín Zappacosta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sibenik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Mar 2029
Mario Karadakić damages knee ligaments — 82 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 82 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.
Market19 Mar 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sibenik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Maksym Andrushchenko 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Sibenik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Jeannot 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom19 Mar 2029
The numbers do not look good at Sibenik
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Mar 2029
Mario Karadakić damages knee ligaments — 89 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sibenik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Mar 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sibenik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Mar 2029
Mario Karadakić damages knee ligaments — 96 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 96 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sibenik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market5 Mar 2029
“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 Sibenik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Sibenik
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Sibenik is running low.
Market5 Mar 2029
Only the photograph left for Yusuf Muhammad
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yusuf Muhammad will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sibenik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sibenik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Jan 2029
Mykhailo Shershen damages knee ligaments — 122 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 122 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Jan 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market29 Jan 2029
“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.
Market29 Jan 2029
The phone has started ringing about Ivan Nesterenko again, and this time the name on the line is Dynamo Kyiv. Vorskla are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad29 Jan 2029
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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmytro Prikhna 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.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
A performance of 8.23 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
109% of the income goes out in wages at Vorskla
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Jan 2029
Mykhailo Shershen damages knee ligaments — 131 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 131 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market22 Jan 2029
“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 Jan 2029
Maksym Andrushchenko 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.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Ivan Nesterenko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match20 Jan 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ivan Nesterenko. 1‑0 against Chernihiv, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Jan 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mykhailo Shershen
139 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market15 Jan 2029
“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.
Market15 Jan 2029
Agustín Moyano has one foot out of the door
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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Vladyslav Voitsekhovskyi 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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Match13 Jan 2029
Obolon left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
5.60. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Jan 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roman Shaparenko
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market8 Jan 2029
“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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Maksym Andrushchenko 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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Dmytro Prikhna 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.
Player ratings8 Jan 2029
Ninety minutes of Ivan Nesterenko at his very best
Marked 8.75. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Vorskla.
Match6 Jan 2029
Three points for Vorskla, 1‑0 the final word against Ahrobiznes in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings8 Jan 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
The numbers do not look good at Vorskla
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Jan 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vorskla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Jan 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roman Shaparenko
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad1 Jan 2029
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.
Loan watch1 Jan 2029
“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 Vorskla, and 0 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad1 Jan 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Marked 8.53 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
125% of the income goes out in wages at Vorskla
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Match30 Dec 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Livyi Bereh leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Dec 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vorskla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roman Shaparenko
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.27 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market25 Dec 2028
Zakhar Karpus 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 Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Maksym Andrushchenko 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 Dec 2028
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Match23 Dec 2028
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Marked 5.80. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Dec 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match16 Dec 2028
5‑1, and Ivan Nesterenko took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Vorskla tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
A brace, and Devonte Ferguson takes the afternoon — 9.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Devonte Ferguson provided it, and the 9.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
A brace, and Ivan Nesterenko takes the afternoon — 8.72
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivan Nesterenko provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad18 Dec 2028
A one-man rearguard from Emil Rockov
There were 7 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.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Dmytro Prikhna, 33, rolls back the years — 7.93
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market18 Dec 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Market18 Dec 2028
Agustín Moyano has one foot out of the door
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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Dec 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 Dec 2028
“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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Maksym Andrushchenko 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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Boardroom11 Dec 2028
The numbers do not look good at Vorskla
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad11 Dec 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Nesterenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
A mark of 5.30 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Dec 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vorskla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
No sign of nerves from Devonte Ferguson at 19 — 7.88
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Devonte Ferguson did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market4 Dec 2028
“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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emil Rockov and Vorskla agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Dec 2028
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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Match2 Dec 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Devonte Ferguson’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Vorskla.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
Wages eat 128% of everything Vorskla 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Nov 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match25 Nov 2028
0‑3 to Kudrivka, 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.
Market27 Nov 2028
“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.
The terraces27 Nov 2028
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 10 of the 35 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Dmytro Prikhna 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.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Vorskla will not try tonight.
Squad27 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mykhailo Shershen, and the manager let it.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
Doors closed at Vorskla
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Nov 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.91 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market20 Nov 2028
“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.
Market20 Nov 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vorskla is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match18 Nov 2028
Vorskla make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Vorskla have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad20 Nov 2028
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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Match18 Nov 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ivan Nesterenko. 2‑0 against Victoriia Sumy, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
19 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Nov 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vorskla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Devonte Ferguson, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.94
A mark of 7.94 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market13 Nov 2028
Artem Serdiuk 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 Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Maksym Andrushchenko 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Nesterenko 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.
The terraces13 Nov 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Devonte Ferguson 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Nesterenko, and the manager let it.
Match11 Nov 2028
A 1‑0 win over Metalurh Zaporizhzhia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Nov 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vorskla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match1 Nov 2028
The small margins put Vorskla out
Out, 2‑3 to LNZ, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market6 Nov 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Nov 2028
A one-man rearguard from Emil Rockov
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.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
23 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad6 Nov 2028
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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmytro Prikhna 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 watch6 Nov 2028
“I watch every Vorskla game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Livyi Bereh runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match4 Nov 2028
Vorskla get the job done against UCSA
A 2‑0 win over UCSA, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Oct 2028
“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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Maksym Andrushchenko 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Denys Ndukve gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match28 Oct 2028
0‑1 to Metalist, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad30 Oct 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Oct 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vorskla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market23 Oct 2028
“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.
Market23 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Agustín Moyano
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Agustín Moyano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vorskla the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Oct 2028
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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alex Chidomere, and the manager let it.
Match21 Oct 2028
Chornomorets left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
An afternoon Denys Ndukve will want back
Marked 5.70. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
5.71 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Oct 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vorskla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market16 Oct 2028
“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.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.01 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Maksym Andrushchenko 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 Oct 2028
Dmytro Prikhna 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.
Match14 Oct 2028
It finished 2‑0, and it was Alex Chidomere’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Vorskla.
Squad16 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Baidal, and the manager let it.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 12. 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
Steady
Squad9 Oct 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market9 Oct 2028
“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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mykhailo Shershen and Vorskla agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.90 beside his name.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Vladyslav Voitsekhovskyi 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Match7 Oct 2028
Chernihiv made Vorskla work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Ninety minutes of Ivan Nesterenko at his very best
Marked 8.82. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Vorskla.
Boardroom9 Oct 2028
131% of the income goes out in wages at Vorskla
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Sep 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vorskla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match16 Sep 2028
Nowhere to hide for Vorskla
0‑3 against Livyi Bereh, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market18 Sep 2028
Anton Baidal 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 Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Sep 2028
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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of Denys Ndukve
“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.
Boardroom18 Sep 2028
Doors closed at Vorskla
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
3.60. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jun 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
“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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Volodymyr Shepeliev 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Jun 2028
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Jun 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Vorskla may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 May 2028
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom29 May 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Vorskla
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Vorskla is running low.
Market29 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 May 2028
Volodymyr Shepeliev 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Squad29 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Devonte Ferguson, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 May 2028
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market22 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 May 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Vorskla may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 May 2028
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.
Squad22 May 2028
Dmytro Prikhna 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.
Boardroom22 May 2028
88% of the income goes out in wages at Vorskla
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 May 2028
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market15 May 2028
“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.
Squad15 May 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Denys Herasymenko is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 May 2028
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom8 May 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Volodymyr Sydorchuk has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market8 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom8 May 2028
An order from above at Vorskla: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Squad8 May 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Emil Rockov commits to Vorskla for another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
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.
In brief
-
Squad
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
-
Boardroom
$303.0K taken back off the Vorskla table
-
Market
Vadym Chervak placed on the list
-
Boardroom
Vorskla answer back
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 May 2028
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom1 May 2028
Pressure builds in the Vorskla boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market1 May 2028
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
Volodymyr Shepeliev 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmytro Prikhna 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.
Squad1 May 2028
The manager's exit leaves Denys Ndukve exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Denys Ndukve is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Apr 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
Market24 Apr 2028
“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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
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.
In brief
-
Squad
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
-
Squad
Toya Myogan wants to go home
-
Boardroom
88% of the income goes out in wages at Vorskla
-
Boardroom
The Vorskla production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Apr 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
Market17 Apr 2028
“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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Vladyslav Voitsekhovskyi 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Apr 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
Market10 Apr 2028
Vadym Chervak 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 Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Apr 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Apr 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
Market3 Apr 2028
“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.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Vorskla
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Mar 2028
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad27 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Kim Moon Hyeon out for 27 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vorskla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Mar 2028
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market20 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Mar 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 115 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market13 Mar 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Mar 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 122 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Kim Moon Hyeon out for 52 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vorskla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market6 Mar 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Feb 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 129 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.
Market28 Feb 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad28 Feb 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Yehor Butenko 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Ivan Nesterenko 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Feb 2028
137 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market21 Feb 2028
“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.
Market21 Feb 2028
Vorskla say no — this time
The offer from Zorya for Ivan Nesterenko was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Denys Herasymenko is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Volodymyr Shepeliev 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.
Match19 Feb 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vladyslav Voitsekhovskyi. 1‑0 against Feniks, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Feb 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 145 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.
Market14 Feb 2028
“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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
A fracture rules Kim Moon Hyeon out for 75 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vorskla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match12 Feb 2028
7 matches without a win for Vorskla
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Vorskla are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Feb 2028
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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Match12 Feb 2028
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.31, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Feb 2028
A fracture rules Kim Moon Hyeon out for 82 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vorskla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Feb 2028
“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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Vorskla
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match5 Feb 2028
No end in sight to Vorskla's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vorskla has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Feb 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The Vorskla board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Volodymyr Shepeliev 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmytro Prikhna 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.
Match5 Feb 2028
A bad afternoon for Vorskla against Probiy
0‑2 to Probiy, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Jan 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 Jan 2028
Toya Myogan 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 Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Match29 Jan 2028
No end in sight to Vorskla's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vorskla has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad31 Jan 2028
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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Market31 Jan 2028
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Vorskla has been clear about where Maksym Andrushchenko stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“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.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Ivan Nesterenko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
Wages eat 99% of everything Vorskla 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vorskla have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 Jan 2028
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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match8 Jan 2028
A bad afternoon for Vorskla against Nyva
0‑2 to Nyva, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad10 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Emil Rockov
“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.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Marked 5.23. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
A mark of 5.35 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Jan 2028
“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.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Devonte Ferguson, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Volodymyr Shepeliev 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 Jan 2028
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmytro Prikhna 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.
Match1 Jan 2028
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“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.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
107% of the income goes out in wages at Vorskla
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Nobody left the Vorskla dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Dec 2027
0‑3 to Prykarpattia, 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
5 matches without a win for Vorskla
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Vorskla are no longer polite ones.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Volodymyr Shepeliev 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
3 matches without a goal for Vorskla
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Volodymyr Shepeliev, and the manager let it.
Boardroom20 Dec 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Taras Dmytruk dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 Nov 2027
Toya Myogan 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 Vorskla can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 Nov 2027
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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Vorskla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Match27 Nov 2027
Inhulets left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Denys Ndukve gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Nesterenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Oct 2027
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Emil Rockov commits to Vorskla for another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Ivan Nesterenko 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Dmytro Prikhna 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.
Match2 Oct 2027
0‑1 to Victoriia Sumy, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
3.90 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
The terraces4 Oct 2027
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Sep 2027
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vorskla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market27 Sep 2027
“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.
Match27 Sep 2027
Vorskla are in real trouble now
Position 14, 6 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Volodymyr Shepeliev 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Ivan Nesterenko 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.