Marked for Danyl Mashchenko
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces14 Apr 2036
Supporters organise against the Kudrivka board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom14 Apr 2036
The scrutiny sharpens at Kudrivka
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Kudrivka is running low.
Match14 Apr 2036
Kudrivka are in real trouble now
Position 16, 15 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.
Market14 Apr 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kudrivka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 Apr 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Apr 2036
A row about effort at Kudrivka
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danyl Mashchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Apr 2036
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout14 Apr 2036
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.
The dugout14 Apr 2036
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Apr 2036
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.
Boardroom7 Apr 2036
Crisis meeting at Kudrivka
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market7 Apr 2036
“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 Kudrivka, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout7 Apr 2036
Bohdan Boyko: 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.” Kudrivka have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market7 Apr 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kudrivka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 Apr 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Danyl Mashchenko commits to Kudrivka for another 2 years.
Squad7 Apr 2036
A falling-out at Kudrivka
Oleksandr Bieliaiev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Apr 2036
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Zasovitskyi 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.
Market7 Apr 2036
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Mar 2036
Words exchanged at Kudrivka
Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.
Squad31 Mar 2036
Danyl Mashchenko 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.
Market31 Mar 2036
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout31 Mar 2036
Luca Costoli 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.
The dugout31 Mar 2036
James Cardona 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 James Cardona is on it.
Market31 Mar 2036
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Kudrivka could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout24 Mar 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kudrivka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market24 Mar 2036
Only the photograph left for Liam Vos
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Liam Vos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kudrivka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Words exchanged at Kudrivka
Illia Zasovitskyi 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.
Squad24 Mar 2036
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danyl Mashchenko 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.
Squad24 Mar 2036
“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; Kudrivka are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market24 Mar 2036
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Artem Liehostaiev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout24 Mar 2036
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 Ruslan Kotchenko is on it.
The dugout24 Mar 2036
Thomas Artić has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Thomas Artić has written the date down.
Market24 Mar 2036
6 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Kudrivka money.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Mar 2036
Kudrivka finish in position 16
15 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
The dugout10 Mar 2036
“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.
Market10 Mar 2036
Luca Costoli has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kudrivka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match8 Mar 2036
No end in sight to Kudrivka's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kudrivka has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Thomas Artić 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.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Danyl Mashchenko 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 dugout10 Mar 2036
“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.
Market10 Mar 2036
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Match8 Mar 2036
Kudrivka and Rukh take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Mar 2036
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Kudrivka can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom3 Mar 2036
Crisis meeting at Kudrivka
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market3 Mar 2036
Only the photograph left for Arseniy Asonov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arseniy Asonov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kudrivka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market3 Mar 2036
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Victoriia Sumy waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kudrivka is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom3 Mar 2036
Liam Vos has agreed to leave Kudrivka for nothing
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad3 Mar 2036
Words exchanged at Kudrivka
Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.
Squad3 Mar 2036
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kostiantyn Shaparenko and Kudrivka agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Mar 2036
A row about effort at Kudrivka
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danyl Mashchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Mar 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Kudrivka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces18 Feb 2036
Anger at Kudrivka spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom18 Feb 2036
The scrutiny sharpens at Kudrivka
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Kudrivka is running low.
Match18 Feb 2036
Kudrivka sink to position 16
13 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market18 Feb 2036
“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.
Transfer targets18 Feb 2036
Metalist wanted more than $720.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad18 Feb 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danyl Mashchenko 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.
Transfer targets18 Feb 2036
Kudrivka asked and Shakhtar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match16 Feb 2036
Kryvbas left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Feb 2036
Artem Liehostaiev wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Artem Liehostaiev found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Dynamo Kyiv went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Market11 Feb 2036
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Kudrivka have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match9 Feb 2036
It had gone 9 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2036
$620.0K was the most the club would pay and Shakhtar were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad11 Feb 2036
A falling-out at Kudrivka
Oleksandr Bieliaiev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Feb 2036
Danyl Mashchenko 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.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2036
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.
Match9 Feb 2036
It finished 1‑0, and it was Artem Liehostaiev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kudrivka.
The dugout11 Feb 2036
The manager makes an example of Arseniy Asonov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Jan 2036
8 matches without a win for Kudrivka
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Kudrivka are no longer polite ones.
Market28 Jan 2036
“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.
Market28 Jan 2036
LNZ come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Kudrivka did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Benjamin Hrelec 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 Jan 2036
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danyl Mashchenko 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.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2036
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.
Match26 Jan 2036
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Jan 2036
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Kudrivka know it.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 Jan 2036
Supporters organise against the Kudrivka board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom21 Jan 2036
The scrutiny sharpens at Kudrivka
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Kudrivka is running low.
Match21 Jan 2036
Kudrivka are in real trouble now
Position 16, 10 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.
Match19 Jan 2036
No end in sight to Kudrivka's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kudrivka has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Jan 2036
A falling-out at Kudrivka
Illia Zasovitskyi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Jan 2036
A row about effort at Kudrivka
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danyl Mashchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 Jan 2036
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad21 Jan 2036
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Match19 Jan 2036
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jan 2036
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Kudrivka can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market7 Jan 2036
Arseniy Asonov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kudrivka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match5 Jan 2036
5 matches without a win for Kudrivka
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Kudrivka are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Jan 2036
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Kudrivka will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad7 Jan 2036
Words exchanged at Kudrivka
Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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 Jan 2036
Danyl Mashchenko 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.
Market7 Jan 2036
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad7 Jan 2036
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 Jan 2036
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Oleksandr Bieliaiev's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Dec 2035
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.
Match29 Dec 2035
No end in sight to Kudrivka's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kudrivka has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings31 Dec 2035
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Oleksandr Bieliaiev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danyl Mashchenko 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 dugout31 Dec 2035
The manager makes an example of Thomas Artić
“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.
Match29 Dec 2035
A 1‑1 draw with Polissia leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout31 Dec 2035
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout31 Dec 2035
Denys Yefremov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Dec 2035
0‑8 to Shakhtar, 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.
Match15 Dec 2035
Nobody could stop scoring
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Kudrivka and Shakhtar in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad17 Dec 2035
A falling-out at Kudrivka
Benjamin Hrelec and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Dec 2035
Danyl Mashchenko 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 dugout17 Dec 2035
“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.
Squad17 Dec 2035
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.
Boardroom17 Dec 2035
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad17 Dec 2035
7 new faces, and Kudrivka are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout17 Dec 2035
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑8, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Dec 2035
Arseniy Asonov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kudrivka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout10 Dec 2035
Mykola Boyko: 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.” Kudrivka have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom10 Dec 2035
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad10 Dec 2035
Illia Zasovitskyi 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.
Squad10 Dec 2035
Danyl Mashchenko 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.
Match8 Dec 2035
Oleksandriya left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout10 Dec 2035
The manager makes an example of Arseniy Asonov
“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.
Squad10 Dec 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bohdan Boyko and Kudrivka agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Dec 2035
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces26 Nov 2035
Supporters organise against the Kudrivka board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom26 Nov 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Kudrivka
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match26 Nov 2035
Kudrivka are in real trouble now
Position 16, 4 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.
Match24 Nov 2035
At last: Kudrivka win one
10 matches without a win, and then this, against Rukh. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad26 Nov 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Danyl Mashchenko 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.
Match24 Nov 2035
It finished 1‑0, and it was Artem Korzh’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kudrivka.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thomas Artić, and the manager let it.
Player ratings26 Nov 2035
Marked 8.02 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Nov 2035
A falling-out at Kudrivka
Oleksandr Bieliaiev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Nov 2035
A row about effort at Kudrivka
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danyl Mashchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Too much change too quickly at Kudrivka
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
Denys Yefremov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
The manager makes an example of Luca Costoli
“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.
Looking ahead19 Nov 2035
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kyrylo Rybak’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Kudrivka needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market19 Nov 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Oleksandr Bieliaiev signs something — a contract at Kudrivka or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
Ruslan Kotchenko has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kudrivka 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.
Market19 Nov 2035
The clock does Arseniy Asonov’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Kudrivka could ask drops and the wages Arseniy Asonov can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Nov 2035
No end in sight to Kudrivka's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kudrivka has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom5 Nov 2035
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Kudrivka can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match31 Oct 2035
Dynamo Kyiv ended it 1‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad5 Nov 2035
There were 8 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.
Market5 Nov 2035
“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 Kudrivka, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces5 Nov 2035
A cup hiding at Dynamo Kyiv leaves Kudrivka explaining themselves
1-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Market5 Nov 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yaroslav Riazantsev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kudrivka the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Oleksandr Bieliaiev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Danyl Mashchenko 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
Squad15 Oct 2035
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kudrivka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Illia Zasovitskyi 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 Oct 2035
Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kostiantyn Shaparenko 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 dugout15 Oct 2035
The manager makes an example of Yanis Giordano
“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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Kudrivka are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market15 Oct 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Looking ahead15 Oct 2035
Dynamo Kyiv next, and one man in the Kudrivka dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market15 Oct 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Oleksandr Bieliaiev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout15 Oct 2035
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Sep 2035
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.
Squad17 Sep 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Danyl Mashchenko and Kudrivka agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets17 Sep 2035
$450.0K was the most the club would pay and Kryvbas were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Oleksandr Bieliaiev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Danyl Mashchenko 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.
Transfer targets17 Sep 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kryvbas have kept their man, and Kudrivka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match15 Sep 2035
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 Sep 2035
The manager makes an example of Arseniy Asonov
“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.
Transfer targets17 Sep 2035
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Kudrivka will try again when the window opens; Dynamo Kyiv may not be selling by then.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Sep 2035
64 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kudrivka lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom10 Sep 2035
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $13.1K of what Kudrivka paid for Laurent Vertonghen is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Transfer targets10 Sep 2035
Fee done, terms next for David Carmo
Kudrivka and Dynamo Kyiv have settled on $13.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market10 Sep 2035
Michael Dike 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 Kudrivka can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom10 Sep 2035
Window shuts: 24 in, 27 out at Kudrivka
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 24 arrived, 27 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market10 Sep 2035
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Illia Zasovitskyi is a Kudrivka player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market10 Sep 2035
The shirt still fits. Denys Yefremov is back at Kudrivka, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Transfer targets10 Sep 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Kudrivka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Danyl Mashchenko 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
Upbeat
Squad22 Jan 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yaroslav Shevchuk
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zorya lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market22 Jan 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zorya is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Tempers go at Zorya
Tim-Tiado Öhri 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.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Shola Ogundana 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.
Match20 Jan 2035
Nyva made Zorya work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings22 Jan 2035
Ninety minutes of Maksym Smiian at his very best
Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zorya.
The dugout22 Jan 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maksym Kartashev, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Jan 2035
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Filippo Marenco will call it something else in private.
The dugout22 Jan 2035
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Taras Dovbyk kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Jan 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yaroslav Shevchuk
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zorya lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 Jan 2035
6 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.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Words exchanged at Zorya
Shola Ogundana 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.
Match6 Jan 2035
A bad afternoon for Zorya against Shakhtar
0‑2 to Shakhtar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Maksym Smiian 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 dugout8 Jan 2035
“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.
The dugout8 Jan 2035
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout8 Jan 2035
Danyl Mashchenko 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 dugout8 Jan 2035
Stanislav Krystin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zorya 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Dec 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yaroslav Shevchuk
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zorya lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match23 Dec 2034
After 13 games, Zorya finally taste it again
The first defeat in 13 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against LNZ; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Market25 Dec 2034
Artem Serdiuk has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zorya they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Dec 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zorya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Shola Ogundana 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.
Match23 Dec 2034
LNZ take the points off Zorya
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout25 Dec 2034
“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.
Squad25 Dec 2034
37 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom25 Dec 2034
Inquest at Zorya
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match25 Nov 2034
10 unbeaten for Zorya
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Zorya did not have in the autumn.
Market27 Nov 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zorya can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings27 Nov 2034
Ivor Ribar pops up at the right end — 7.93
7.93, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Market27 Nov 2034
Only the photograph left for Artem Serdiuk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Serdiuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zorya the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Nov 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zorya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Nov 2034
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Match27 Nov 2034
Zorya at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 2, 33 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Match25 Nov 2034
It needed Ivor Ribar to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Kryvbas, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout27 Nov 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Serdiuk, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match13 Nov 2034
Zorya refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 32 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Match11 Nov 2034
Whatever happens, Zorya do not lose
9 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad13 Nov 2034
Words exchanged at Zorya
Tim-Tiado Öhri 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.
Squad13 Nov 2034
Shola Ogundana 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 ratings13 Nov 2034
A performance of 8.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match11 Nov 2034
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Match11 Nov 2034
A 2‑2 draw with Dynamo Kyiv leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout13 Nov 2034
“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.
Market13 Nov 2034
Zorya and Ivor Ribar are talking past each other
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Oct 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zorya is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Words exchanged at Zorya
Shola Ogundana 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.
Market16 Oct 2034
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Words at Zorya training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Atanasov 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 dugout16 Oct 2034
“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.
Market16 Oct 2034
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Zorya money.
The dugout16 Oct 2034
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 Danyl Mashchenko is on it.
Market16 Oct 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zorya know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Looking ahead16 Oct 2034
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Epicentr in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Oct 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zorya can pretend not to have heard.
Market2 Oct 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zorya is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Oct 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zorya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Oct 2034
Words at Zorya training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shola Ogundana 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.
Squad2 Oct 2034
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zorya can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad2 Oct 2034
Roman Yakuba is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Roman Yakuba has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Market2 Oct 2034
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Zorya has been clear about where Danyl Mashchenko stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout2 Oct 2034
A promise honoured at Zorya
Something was said to Filippo Marenco and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout2 Oct 2034
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Aug 2034
Zorya out of the cup
Chernihiv ended it 3‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market4 Sep 2034
Only the photograph left for Djiby Seck
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Djiby Seck will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zorya the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market4 Sep 2034
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Zorya people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout4 Sep 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zorya may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad4 Sep 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zorya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Aug 2034
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zorya and Chernihiv in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2034
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dynamo Kyiv have kept their man, and Zorya go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match2 Sep 2034
A 2‑1 win over Shakhtar, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings4 Sep 2034
A touch he did not mean and a goal that goes in the book with his name against it. Zorya will not blame him tonight and he will not need them to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Jun 2034
Maksym Smiian breaks a bone — 72 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Jun 2034
Shakhtar come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zorya did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market19 Jun 2034
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Zorya have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market19 Jun 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zorya can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2034
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Zorya have done the hard part with Dynamo Kyiv, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Tempers go at Zorya
Tim-Tiado Öhri 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 Jun 2034
A row about effort at Zorya
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shola Ogundana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2034
Zorya asked and Metalist said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout19 Jun 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vladyslav Zakharchenko, and the manager let it.