Marked for Tymur Stetskov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Feb 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Karpaty people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Viktor Tsukanov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.73
A mark of 7.73 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
The deal with Panetolikos is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Market15 Feb 2027
The fee is $160.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Ahrobiznes drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad15 Feb 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 Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Xeber Alkain 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.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“I watch every Karpaty game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Metalist runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match10 Dec 2026
4‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Squad14 Dec 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Viktor Tsukanov at 20 — 7.93
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Viktor Tsukanov did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Karpaty — 7.68
1 for Edson, marked 7.68, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Karpaty — 7.92
1 for Moha, marked 7.92, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Karpaty
Valentyn Rubchynskyi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Marked 9.70 — 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tymur Stetskov and Karpaty agree another 3 years.
Match13 Dec 2026
A bad afternoon for Karpaty against Kryvbas
1‑2 to Kryvbas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Dec 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xeber Alkain 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 Dec 2026
Dynamo Kyiv left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Karpaty
Eriki 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Maksym Kovaliov is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Maksym Kovaliov 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Iván Calero 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 Iván Calero is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Karpaty may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market23 Nov 2026
Only the photograph left for Marko Sapuha
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marko Sapuha will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Karpaty the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Karpaty
Joseph Séry and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Nov 2026
LNZ made Karpaty work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 7.82 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Karpaty had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Yevhen Buialskyi, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
When it matters, Joseph Séry plays
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladyslav Babohlo 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
Triumph
Match28 Oct 2026
Cup progress for Karpaty
A 2‑0 win over Rukh, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match31 Oct 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Kyrylo Osypenko takes the afternoon — 8.03
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kyrylo Osypenko provided it, and the 8.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match2 Nov 2026
Karpaty are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 26 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Viktor Tsukanov, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Karpaty
Joseph Séry 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.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 8.09 — 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.