“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 The request is on a desk at Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Feniks have done the hard part with Karpaty, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Oleksandr Nikolyshyn 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrii Kukharuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Feniks were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Yevhen Shevchuk is 18, and Feniks have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
5 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Léo Campos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rostyslav Revakovych will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feniks the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Rostyslav Revakovych 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko and Feniks agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Denys Zelentsov is living that version at Feniks, and it tends to show in the first month.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrii Kukharuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Roman Hahun 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.
Denys Zelentsov is 20, and Feniks have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The quietest bad news in football. At 20 nothing has moved for months — not backwards, which would at least be a conversation, simply nowhere. Somebody at the club will have to decide whether that is the club's fault or his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Léo Campos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Feniks know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Melnyk 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.
“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; Feniks are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nazar Hrytsak trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko signs something — a contract at Feniks or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Tarkan Üçünçü has written the date down.
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.
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.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Sviatoslav-Mykhailo Oryshchak 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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Andrii Kukharuk is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Feniks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Everybody at Feniks saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Ben Hatton 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Feniks know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Feniks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Melnyk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Feniks game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Oleksandriya runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Feniks know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Feniks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
“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 dugout16 Apr 2029
Yevhen Usenko 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko signs something — a contract at Feniks or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Feniks will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Samuel Obinaia 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrii Kukharuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Feniks will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Melnyk 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.
Something was said to Aulon Asani and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“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 Feniks, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Feniks know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Feniks would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Bohdan Zadniprianets has just signed for Feniks, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Dryhan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Yevhen Usenko 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Feniks are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 Mar 2029
Yevhen Usenko 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko signs something — a contract at Feniks or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
9 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.
Position 16 on 17 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inhulets have kept their man, and Feniks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Melnyk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
8 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.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Andrii Kukharuk 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 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.
7 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Feniks close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Chernihiv will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Mykyta Velihorskyi has pre-agreed a move to Feniks, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Feniks asked and Polissia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Melnyk 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.88, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 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.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Karpaty have kept their man, and Feniks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Melnyk 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Feniks can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Position 16 and 16 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Feniks had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Polissia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Feniks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Roman Kovaliuk again, and this time the name on the line is Kolos. Feniks are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Melnyk 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 words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Feniks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Melnyk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
At 36, 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.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Vladyslav Popov to a room that had heard them before.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Feniks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vladyslav Popov after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Léo Campos 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Valerii Kucherov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Feniks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 15 and 16 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.
13 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Podillia were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Podillia spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Melnyk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
6 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.
Andrii Kukharuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Melnyk 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.
12 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.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Feniks can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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 0‑2 Vladyslav Popov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Léo Campos 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.
In brief
The dugoutOleh Synytsia asks for a word with the manager
Looking aheadFeniks take on the side everybody is chasing
The dugoutBohdan Dryhan dropped after a run of poor form
11 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Feniks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Melnyk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 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.
“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 dugout18 Dec 2028
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.” Vladyslav Popov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Position 16 and 12 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.
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 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.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Feniks know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Squad11 Dec 2028
7 new faces, and Feniks 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 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.
9 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.
“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; Feniks are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Viacheslav Surkis knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
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 0‑2 Vladyslav Popov left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Feniks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Melnyk 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.
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.
Position 15, 12 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Melnyk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Feniks can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Yevhen Usenko's mistake
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.
1 for Andrii Kukharuk, marked 7.55, 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.
Samuel Obinaia 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.
Everybody at Feniks saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko, and the manager let it.
Squad13 Nov 2028
8 new faces, and Feniks 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.
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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vladyslav Popov after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
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.
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.
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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
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.” Vladyslav Popov chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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 dugout23 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Vladyslav Popov to a room that had heard them before.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Léo Campos 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.
Inhulets next, and one man in the Feniks dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Melnyk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Oct 2028
10 new faces, and Feniks 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Feniks are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Valerii Kucherov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Yevhen Usenko's mistake
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Andrii Kukharuk’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Feniks needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Zakaria Rasouli has just signed for Feniks, and for once the answer mattered.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Feniks and Metalurh Zaporizhzhia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Melnyk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Roman Savchenko 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.
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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Feniks, another week without a signature from Oleksandr Melnyk.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Samuel Obinaia 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 14 combined actions and a mark of 6.81, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Roman Kovaliuk has his answer from Feniks; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tarkan Üçünçü commits to Feniks for another 3 years.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
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 Vladyslav Popov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Richard Schulze, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.71
A mark of 7.71 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inhulets have kept their man, and Feniks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 17 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Richard Schulze. 1‑0 against Prykarpattia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad18 Sep 2028
7 new faces, and Feniks 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.
Something was said to Viacheslav Surkis and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Feniks close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 12 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The deal with Shakhtar 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.
Feniks asked and Zorya said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko 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 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.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Yevhen Usenko's mistake
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Feniks will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The offer from Kolos for Oleksandr Melnyk 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 terraces4 Sep 2028
A cup hiding at Zorya leaves Feniks explaining themselves
0-3, 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Feniks asked and Kryvbas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.49, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
Feniks 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 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Vladyslav Popov to a room that had heard them before.
Ben Hatton 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Vyacheslav Koidan has his answer from Feniks; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
Feniks asked and Dynamo Kyiv 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 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 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.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.88 for the rest of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Everything agreed with Dynamo Kyiv, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Karpaty have kept their man, and Feniks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Feniks asked and Polissia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Kovaliuk 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Feniks know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Feniks, another week without a signature from Oleksandr Melnyk.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Feniks people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Feniks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Andrii Kukharuk 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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Feniks asked and Polissia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Maksym Sudakov 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. Ruslan Lunyov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Polissia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Polissia have kept their man, and Feniks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Anton Zadereiko 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 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.
Denys Balan 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.
A loan enquiry to Polissia: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad17 Jul 2028
5 new faces, and Feniks 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chernihiv waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Feniks is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Feniks have done the hard part with Obolon, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Feniks had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Metalist, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Feniks know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutAnton Zadereiko has become a man the manager trusts
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Obolon is saying, and nobody at Feniks is enjoying the guessing.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
Feniks asked and Oleksandriya said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Chernihiv will make the call about Anton Zadereiko this week. Feniks have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Metalist have kept their man, and Feniks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Metalurh Zaporizhzhia 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 Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rukh have kept their man, and Feniks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko 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.
“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 Feniks know it.
Andrii Kukharuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko 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.
Yevhen Usenko is 20, and Feniks have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Feniks are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Feniks know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutAnton Zadereiko has become a man the manager trusts
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roman Kovaliuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Anton Zadereiko 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Feniks will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Ihor Medynskyi is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
This is not rotation. Christian Bos has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Feniks is pretending otherwise.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A new face in his position, and Oleh Synytsia suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Feniks have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Feniks lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Feniks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Samoilenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nazar Hrytsak signs something — a contract at Feniks or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Feniks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Samoilenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Anton Zadereiko is on it.
In brief
The dugoutRoman Hahun knocks on the manager’s door
MarketThe clock does Denys Balan’s negotiating for him
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Feniks lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Feniks. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Feniks lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Feniks can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Zadereiko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feniks the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Samoilenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Feniks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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 Roman Kovaliuk has written the date down.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Feniks would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Feniks could ask drops and the wages Denys Balan can ask rise.
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Feniks lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Feniks can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Samoilenko 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.
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Feniks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Oleksandr Nikolyshyn 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 Apr 2028
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Samoilenko 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Feniks than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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 Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Feniks lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Anton Zadereiko is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Feniks know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Feniks lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Samoilenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Feniks asked and Veres said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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 Vladyslav Popov left the room before anybody could ask which.
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Feniks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Metalurh Zaporizhzhia is saying, and nobody at Feniks is enjoying the guessing.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Anton Zadereiko 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.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
Feniks asked and Polissia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
100 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Feniks lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Feniks had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Metalist, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 107 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.
Everything agreed with Metalist, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Samoilenko 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.
Feniks asked and Obolon said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Denys Balan 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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Vladyslav Popov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Feniks dressing room was either.
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 words a physio says slowly. 114 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chernihiv waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Feniks is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deal with Karpaty 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.
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. 7.79 beside his name.
Oleksandr Nikolyshyn 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Karpaty have kept their man, and Feniks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oleh Synytsia. 2‑1 against Ahrobiznes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Feniks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 to Metalurh Zaporizhzhia, 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.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Feniks can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Samoilenko 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Polissia have kept their man, and Feniks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
129 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Feniks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Zadereiko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feniks the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Samoilenko 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Livyi Bereh have kept their man, and Feniks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
136 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Feniks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
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.
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.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nazar Semenenko did not need any: 8.14, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Andrii Kukharuk 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 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.
He is 21 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.95, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
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.” Vladyslav Popov, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Bohdan Dryhan
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrii Kukharuk provided it, and the 8.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrii Kukharuk. 3‑1 against Podillia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Nazar Semenenko 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.
Podillia held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Feniks answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
0‑6 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match1 Jan 2028
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Feniks and Kudrivka in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vladyslav Popov after 0‑6, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Oleksandr Nikolyshyn 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 Dec 2027
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Samoilenko 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vladyslav Popov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Andrii Kusyi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Valerii Kucherov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
7.55, 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.
4 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Samoilenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Valerii Kucherov scored, was marked 7.38, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bohdan Dryhan, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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.” Vladyslav Popov chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Oleksandr Nikolyshyn trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Zadereiko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feniks the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
“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 Feniks know it.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Samoilenko 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.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Samoilenko 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.
Half the programme played, position 10, 18 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Vladyslav Popov to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Nazar Semenenko decided nobody was going anywhere. Probiy had no time left to answer.
He is 19 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nazar Semenenko. 1‑0 against Probiy, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dzhilindo Bezhubchenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A mark of 7.62, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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.” Vladyslav Popov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Feniks have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Denys Balan 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Feniks told Roman Savchenko something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Probiy next, and one man in the Feniks dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Anton Zadereiko is on it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Feniks will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Feniks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Oleksandr Nikolyshyn 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 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Samoilenko 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 dugout8 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Vladyslav Popov to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Oleh Synytsia and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and Feniks are still learning each other
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleh Synytsia, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
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 0‑2 Vladyslav Popov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Kovaliuk 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.
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.
Chernihiv next, and one man in the Feniks dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zsombor Tolnai will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feniks the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Andrii Kukharuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Samoilenko 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Feniks has been clear about where Oleksandr Nikolyshyn stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 dugout25 Oct 2027
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 Vladyslav Popov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Andrii Kukharuk scored, was marked 7.62, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Roman Kovaliuk. 3‑1 against Metalurh Zaporizhzhia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Samoilenko 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.
He is 22 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Metalurh Zaporizhzhia tried to reorganise, Feniks did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Feniks they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
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.
6 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ihor Potimkov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Feniks needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
“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 Feniks know it.
0‑1 to UCSA, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Vladyslav Popov to a room that had heard them before.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Feniks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutZsombor Tolnai wants a proper job in this side
Player ratingsOleh Synytsia beats them one at a time
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zsombor Tolnai will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feniks the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Samoilenko 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.
Denys Balan 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.
“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 dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Vladyslav Popov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Feniks dressing room was either.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Feniks can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Nazar Semenenko 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Feniks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Feniks close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 13 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nazar Semenenko is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Feniks can tell you which week it ends in.
Andrii Kukharuk 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 Sep 2027
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Samoilenko 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Feniks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The deal with Shakhtar 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.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Samoilenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Anton Zadereiko has come up in conversations Feniks were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
0‑4 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.
Metalist go through and Feniks go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Feniks will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal with Inhulets 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.
Feniks offered $41.0K; Prykarpattia 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.
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.
0‑3 against Victoriia Sumy, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Feniks will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Inhulets waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Feniks is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Yehor Demchenko has gone, the accounts have $590.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Feniks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Shakhtar 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to Prykarpattia 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Feniks will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
He is going to Zorya, the club has $680.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Valerii Kucherov scored, was marked 7.76, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Andrii Kukharuk 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.
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.
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.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Up for the corner, and Roman Hahun delivers — 7.64
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Roman Hahun scored, was marked 7.64, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Feniks asked and Oleksandriya said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.34, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Feniks are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Rostyslav Liakh is in the works
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Chornomorets spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zsombor Tolnai will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feniks the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Feniks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Karpaty keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Oleksandriya waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Feniks is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Feniks will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Samoilenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.