A 0‑3 beating by Shakhtar was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon Ceberio 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Epicentr can tell you which week it ends in.
Oleksandr Klymets 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mykola Kocherhin after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Anton Bol and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon Ceberio 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.
“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 dugout19 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Denys Smetana
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Shakhtar.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Anton Bol 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.
Dynamo Kyiv will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Oleksii Rybak has pre-agreed a move to Epicentr, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Mykola Kocherhin chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Epicentr 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Dynamo Kyiv? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Oleksandriya next, and one man in the Epicentr dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Epicentr was different afterwards.
In brief
The dugoutNikita Fedotov asks for a word with the manager
Anton Bol 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 Oct 2026
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon Ceberio 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.
11 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mykola Kocherhin on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
10 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Epicentr can tell you which week it ends in.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Epicentr will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 14 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Epicentr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jon Ceberio 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.
9 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“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 Epicentr, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Epicentr will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Epicentr asked and Cruzeiro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Kyrylo Kovalets 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 8 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Jon Ceberio 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Epicentr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The offer from Bukovyna for Andrii Lipovuz 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Crvena Zvezda keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$11.0K was the most the club would pay and Chornomorets 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon Ceberio 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.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Epicentr will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Epicentr can tell you which week it ends in.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Epicentr can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: River Plate keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Epicentr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Epicentr will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The offer went to Shakhtar this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Anton Bol and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon Ceberio 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.
Successful dribbles: 43. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Epicentr will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
$1.2M on the table at Dynamo Kyiv. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Epicentr offered $1.0M; LNZ said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Anton Bol 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon Ceberio 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The phone has started ringing about Vladyslav Krystin again, and this time the name on the line is Veres. Epicentr are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Epicentr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Oleksiy Mudryk is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Pavlo Lunyov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Heorhiy Malynovskyi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nazariy Shaparenko has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Epicentr will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jon Ceberio and Epicentr agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jon Ceberio 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Epicentr this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Mykola Kocherhin left the room before anybody could ask which.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.