From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 Mar 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inhulets can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mykyta Kononov 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 dugout22 Mar 2032
news_b_old_wounds_reopened
Squad22 Mar 2032
Too much change too quickly at Inhulets
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout22 Mar 2032
The manager has not finished forgetting Oleksandr Yevtushenko'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.
The dugout22 Mar 2032
Nobody at Inhulets will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market22 Mar 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Artem Benediuk’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout22 Mar 2032
Marc Yapéndé asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout15 Mar 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad15 Mar 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mykyta Kononov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
news_b_old_wounds_reopened
The dugout15 Mar 2032
Artem Lovhyn gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
Vitaliy Tkachuk has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Inhulets will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market15 Mar 2032
The name of Bohdan Mohylnyi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Inhulets say nothing, which says plenty.
Market15 Mar 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad15 Mar 2032
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Inhulets says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Mar 2032
Inhulets sink to position 15
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market8 Mar 2032
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Mar 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Inhulets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom8 Mar 2032
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Marc Yapéndé 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.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Illia Hadzhuk 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 dugout8 Mar 2032
news_b_old_wounds_reopened
Squad8 Mar 2032
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaliy Tkachuk 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.
Market8 Mar 2032
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout8 Mar 2032
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 Mar 2032
Pressure builds in the Inhulets boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market1 Mar 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market1 Mar 2032
The deal that would have taken Danila Slesarchuk to Chornomorets has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Inhulets with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Inhulets may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom1 Mar 2032
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Inhulets until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Transfer targets1 Mar 2032
Inhulets had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Chornomorets, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2032
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Feb 2032
UCSA come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Inhulets did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market23 Feb 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad23 Feb 2032
A falling-out at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Feb 2032
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mykyta Kononov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Feb 2032
Orest Kuzyk gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout23 Feb 2032
news_b_old_wounds_reopened
Market23 Feb 2032
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Transfer targets23 Feb 2032
Chornomorets have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad23 Feb 2032
5 new faces, and Inhulets 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Feb 2032
The wait goes on for Inhulets
14 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.
Match16 Feb 2032
Inhulets finish in position 15
5 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Market16 Feb 2032
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings16 Feb 2032
Serhii Kyslenko, 33, rolls back the years — 8.69
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.69 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad16 Feb 2032
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match14 Feb 2032
Inhulets leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
The dugout16 Feb 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Boardroom16 Feb 2032
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad16 Feb 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
-
Match
Rukh take the points off Inhulets
-
Match
7 goals as Inhulets and Rukh go for it
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Feb 2032
The wait goes on for Inhulets
13 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.
Match9 Feb 2032
Inhulets sink to position 15
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market9 Feb 2032
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chornomorets waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Inhulets is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market9 Feb 2032
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Feb 2032
Only the photograph left for Ihor Kohut
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ihor Kohut will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Player ratings9 Feb 2032
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom9 Feb 2032
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ihor Kohut 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.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Illia Hadzhuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Jan 2032
12 matches without a win for Inhulets
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Inhulets are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Inhulets
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
Denys Kravets has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Inhulets can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market2 Feb 2032
Ihor Kohut hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inhulets can pretend not to have heard.
Squad2 Feb 2032
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market2 Feb 2032
The name of Luca Bărbulescu has come up in conversations Inhulets were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout2 Feb 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad2 Feb 2032
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk 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 Feb 2032
Luca Bărbulescu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Jan 2032
The wait goes on for Inhulets
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.
Squad26 Jan 2032
46 days out for Zaur Baisurkaev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Inhulets will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings26 Jan 2032
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.39, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market26 Jan 2032
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout26 Jan 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad26 Jan 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Jan 2032
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad26 Jan 2032
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Bărbulescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets26 Jan 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Karpaty have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Jan 2032
No end in sight to Inhulets's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Inhulets has to find a result from somewhere.
Match17 Jan 2032
Nowhere to hide for Inhulets
0‑5 against Karpaty, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market19 Jan 2032
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Jan 2032
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad19 Jan 2032
A fracture rules Zaur Baisurkaev out for 53 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inhulets will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Jan 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Inhulets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout19 Jan 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad19 Jan 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout19 Jan 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artur Andreychyk, and the manager let it.
In brief
-
Squad
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
-
Boardroom
Nobody left the Inhulets dressing room in a hurry
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Jan 2032
0‑7 to Shakhtar, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match12 Jan 2032
Every point is an argument now for Inhulets
Position 15 and 5 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.
Match10 Jan 2032
9 matches without a win for Inhulets
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Inhulets are no longer polite ones.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad12 Jan 2032
A fracture rules Zaur Baisurkaev out for 60 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inhulets will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout12 Jan 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market12 Jan 2032
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Match10 Jan 2032
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Inhulets and Shakhtar, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jan 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andriy Kovalenko
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inhulets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match3 Jan 2032
No end in sight to Inhulets's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Inhulets has to find a result from somewhere.
Market5 Jan 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout5 Jan 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad5 Jan 2032
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Squad5 Jan 2032
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaliy Tkachuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Jan 2032
A promise honoured at Inhulets
Something was said to Orest Kuzyk and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Match3 Jan 2032
It needed Serhii Kyslenko to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Oleksandriya, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout5 Jan 2032
Nobody at Inhulets will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Dec 2031
Andriy Kovalenko damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad29 Dec 2031
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market29 Dec 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inhulets can pretend not to have heard.
Match27 Dec 2031
No end in sight to Inhulets's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Inhulets has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout29 Dec 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad29 Dec 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match27 Dec 2031
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad29 Dec 2031
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mykyta Kononov 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 dugout29 Dec 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Dec 2031
Andriy Kovalenko damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Market22 Dec 2031
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match20 Dec 2031
No end in sight to Inhulets's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Inhulets has to find a result from somewhere.
Market22 Dec 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Inhulets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match20 Dec 2031
Inhulets cannot find the net
5 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 dugout22 Dec 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad22 Dec 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom22 Dec 2031
Belts tighten at Inhulets
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Match20 Dec 2031
Kolos left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Dec 2031
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Inhulets lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match13 Dec 2031
0‑4 to Chornomorets, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match15 Dec 2031
Inhulets are in real trouble now
Position 15, 4 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad15 Dec 2031
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The dugout15 Dec 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market15 Dec 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match13 Dec 2031
5 matches without a win for Inhulets
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Inhulets are no longer polite ones.
Match13 Dec 2031
4 matches without a goal for Inhulets
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.
Squad15 Dec 2031
Illia Hadzhuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Dec 2031
Oleksiy Kocherhin damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Match6 Dec 2031
Beaten 0‑9 by Polissia, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market8 Dec 2031
Ihor Kohut hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inhulets can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 4 saves does not settle it either way.
Squad8 Dec 2031
The medical room confirms 32 days on the sidelines for Luca Bărbulescu, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match6 Dec 2031
4 matches without a win for Inhulets
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Inhulets are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Artur Andreychyk 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.
Match6 Dec 2031
Nobody could stop scoring
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Inhulets and Polissia in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match6 Dec 2031
Inhulets cannot find the net
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Dec 2031
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market1 Dec 2031
Artem Lovhyn hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inhulets can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad1 Dec 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 Nov 2031
0‑2 to Kryvbas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 Dec 2031
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mykyta Kononov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad1 Dec 2031
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
The manager makes an example of Artem Lovhyn
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Nov 2031
0‑4 to Dynamo Kyiv, 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.
Squad24 Nov 2031
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market24 Nov 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inhulets can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Nov 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Inhulets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad24 Nov 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom24 Nov 2031
Belts tighten at Inhulets
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
“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.
Boardroom24 Nov 2031
Nobody left the Inhulets dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
In brief
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
Squad
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
-
The dugout
Artur Andreychyk knocks on the manager’s door
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Nov 2031
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.
Match15 Nov 2031
Nowhere to hide for Inhulets
1‑6 against Zorya, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match17 Nov 2031
Inhulets are in real trouble now
Position 15, 4 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market17 Nov 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad17 Nov 2031
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Match15 Nov 2031
Bohdan Mohylnyi among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Bohdan Mohylnyi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Inhulets and Zorya.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Mykyta Kononov 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.
Boardroom17 Nov 2031
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 Nov 2031
At last: Inhulets win one
16 matches without a win, and then this, against Vorskla. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Market10 Nov 2031
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Nov 2031
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.
Player ratings10 Nov 2031
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.38, and nobody on the pitch better.
The dugout10 Nov 2031
Oleksii Slutskyi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Inhulets have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 Nov 2031
60 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad10 Nov 2031
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Match8 Nov 2031
Vorskla made Inhulets work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings10 Nov 2031
Luca Bărbulescu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Nov 2031
16 matches without a win for Inhulets
The run now stands at 16, and the questions being asked around Inhulets are no longer polite ones.
Market3 Nov 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match1 Nov 2031
No clean sheets in sight for Inhulets
8 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
The dugout3 Nov 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad3 Nov 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Nov 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Orest Kuzyk and Inhulets agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match1 Nov 2031
Rukh left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Looking ahead3 Nov 2031
A six-pointer for Inhulets
Vorskla next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
The dugout3 Nov 2031
“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.
In brief
-
Match
Inhulets at the halfway mark
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
Squad
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Oct 2031
15 matches without a win for Inhulets
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Inhulets are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings27 Oct 2031
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match25 Oct 2031
Inhulets are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Market27 Oct 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vitaliy Tkachuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout27 Oct 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad27 Oct 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom27 Oct 2031
The numbers do not look good at Inhulets
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.
Match25 Oct 2031
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad27 Oct 2031
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Bărbulescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Oct 2031
14 matches without a win for Inhulets
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Inhulets are no longer polite ones.
Match20 Oct 2031
Inhulets are in real trouble now
Position 16, 1 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market20 Oct 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout20 Oct 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Inhulets may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match18 Oct 2031
Inhulets are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad20 Oct 2031
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Artur Andreychyk 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.
Match18 Oct 2031
Metalist left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad20 Oct 2031
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Bărbulescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings20 Oct 2031
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
In brief
-
The dugout
The manager makes an example of Ihor Malynovskyi
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
Squad
Inhulets are still strangers to each other
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Oct 2031
The wait goes on for Inhulets
13 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.
Match11 Oct 2031
Chastening afternoon for Inhulets
A 1‑4 beating by Veres was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market13 Oct 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad13 Oct 2031
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.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Match11 Oct 2031
No clean sheets in sight for Inhulets
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Player ratings13 Oct 2031
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
“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.
Boardroom13 Oct 2031
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
In brief
-
Squad
Home is on Matías Montaño's mind
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
Squad
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Oct 2031
No end in sight to Inhulets's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Inhulets has to find a result from somewhere.
Match4 Oct 2031
Beaten 0‑3 by Karpaty, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market6 Oct 2031
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad6 Oct 2031
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.
Squad6 Oct 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bohdan Mohylnyi and Inhulets agree another 3 years.
Squad6 Oct 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Oct 2031
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Bărbulescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match4 Oct 2031
Inhulets are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The dugout6 Oct 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vitalii Zhupanskyi, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Sep 2031
There were 12 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match27 Sep 2031
11 matches without a win for Inhulets
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Inhulets are no longer polite ones.
Match27 Sep 2031
Nowhere to hide for Inhulets
1‑6 against Shakhtar, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Boardroom29 Sep 2031
Inhulets counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Inhulets now.
Market29 Sep 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Inhulets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout29 Sep 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad29 Sep 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Sep 2031
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Inhulets and Shakhtar in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Bărbulescu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Sep 2031
No end in sight to Inhulets's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Inhulets has to find a result from somewhere.
Match22 Sep 2031
Inhulets are in real trouble now
Position 16, 1 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Illia Hadzhuk 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 dugout22 Sep 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danila Slesarchuk, and the manager let it.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.88 on the card, and the Inhulets support went home talking about one name.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad22 Sep 2031
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edoardo Sturli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Sep 2031
Nowhere to hide for Inhulets
1‑4 against LNZ, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match13 Sep 2031
The wait goes on for Inhulets
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.
Market15 Sep 2031
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Sep 2031
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Bărbulescu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets15 Sep 2031
Inhulets asked and Grodig 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 dugout15 Sep 2031
The manager makes an example of Irakli Siradze
“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.
Boardroom15 Sep 2031
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
In brief
-
Squad
Too much change too quickly at Inhulets
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
The dugout
When it matters, Vitalii Zhupanskyi plays
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Sep 2031
No end in sight to Inhulets's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Inhulets has to find a result from somewhere.
Market8 Sep 2031
The Nyva deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Luca Bărbulescu reports back to Inhulets with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Market8 Sep 2031
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom8 Sep 2031
Window shuts: 25 in, 26 out at Inhulets
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 25 arrived, 26 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets8 Sep 2031
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Karpaty is saying, and nobody at Inhulets is enjoying the guessing.
Squad8 Sep 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stanislav-Nuri Malysh and Inhulets agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Sep 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Artem Lovhyn arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Artem Lovhyn has, at Inhulets, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Luca Bărbulescu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Sep 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Inhulets people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match30 Aug 2031
The small margins put Inhulets out
Out, 2‑5 to Chornomorets, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings1 Sep 2031
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.78, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match30 Aug 2031
The wait goes on for Inhulets
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.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
The numbers do not look good at Inhulets
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 terraces1 Sep 2031
2-5. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Squad1 Sep 2031
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.
Market1 Sep 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings1 Sep 2031
Vitaliy Tkachuk pops up at the right end — 7.95
7.95, 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Aug 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match23 Aug 2031
0‑5 to Polissia, 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.
Match23 Aug 2031
5 matches without a win for Inhulets
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Inhulets are no longer polite ones.
Match23 Aug 2031
5 matches without a goal for Inhulets
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Illia Hadzhuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad25 Aug 2031
A muscle injury sidelines Ihor Kohut for 18 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Inhulets will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad25 Aug 2031
A move Manuel Tonni would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Manuel Tonni is living that version at Inhulets, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market25 Aug 2031
Everyone has stopped pretending: Nyva will make the call about Luca Bărbulescu this week. Inhulets have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Epicentr have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Aug 2031
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.
Match16 Aug 2031
No end in sight to Inhulets's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Inhulets has to find a result from somewhere.
Match16 Aug 2031
Inhulets cannot find the net
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.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Transfer targets18 Aug 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad18 Aug 2031
At 27 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Match16 Aug 2031
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings18 Aug 2031
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.
The dugout18 Aug 2031
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 Denys Kravets left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Aug 2031
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.
Match9 Aug 2031
Beaten 0‑4 by Dynamo Kyiv, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad11 Aug 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Artur Andreychyk has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad11 Aug 2031
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.
Match9 Aug 2031
3 matches without a goal for Inhulets
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.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2031
Inhulets 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.
The dugout11 Aug 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stanislav-Nuri Malysh, and the manager let it.
Boardroom11 Aug 2031
Nobody left the Inhulets dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Aug 2031
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match2 Aug 2031
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 12 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Market4 Aug 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
The dugout4 Aug 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad4 Aug 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Aug 2031
At 28 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 4 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Transfer targets4 Aug 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad4 Aug 2031
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artur Andreychyk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Jul 2031
17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match26 Jul 2031
Still nobody has beaten Inhulets
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market28 Jul 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Boardroom28 Jul 2031
5 academy graduates step up at Inhulets
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chornomorets have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market28 Jul 2031
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Maksym Rebrov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market28 Jul 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Valentyn Shevchuk has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market28 Jul 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andriy Kovalenko has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Jul 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk 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.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bukovyna have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Artur Andreychyk 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.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Vitaliy Tkachuk has improved at 27, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boardroom21 Jul 2031
Wages eat 96% of everything Inhulets earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout21 Jul 2031
Ihor Kohut gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Jul 2031
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.
Market21 Jul 2031
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Inhulets know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Jul 2031
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Jul 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Jul 2031
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.
Squad14 Jul 2031
At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Oleksandriya have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jul 2031
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artur Andreychyk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
Inhulets have made the call to Chornomorets. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
A loan enquiry to Shakhtar: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout14 Jul 2031
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout7 Jul 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad7 Jul 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Jul 2031
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edoardo Sturli is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
Karpaty have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
Inhulets sign 6 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Market7 Jul 2031
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Danila Slesarchuk has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Inhulets.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
Inhulets can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom30 Jun 2031
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk 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.
Boardroom30 Jun 2031
The numbers do not look good at Inhulets
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.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chornomorets have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Jun 2031
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artur Andreychyk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad30 Jun 2031
At 24 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Karpaty have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market30 Jun 2031
He is 18, and nobody at Inhulets signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market30 Jun 2031
No place for Ihor Kohut in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ihor Kohut has his answer from Inhulets; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Jun 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inhulets can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Squad23 Jun 2031
The medical room confirms 23 days on the sidelines for Volodymyr Nazarenko, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Andreychyk 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.
Market23 Jun 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Oleksiy Kocherhin has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market23 Jun 2031
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vasyl Kovalenko has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market23 Jun 2031
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Anton Stepanenko has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Boardroom23 Jun 2031
Wages eat 108% of everything Inhulets earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Jun 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inhulets can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Jun 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
The manager makes an example of Irakli Siradze
“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.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Edoardo Sturli falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
A loan enquiry to Veres: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
A loan enquiry to Karpaty: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
A loan move for Artem Plysiuk is in the works
Inhulets have made the call to Karpaty. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
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 Vitalii Zhupanskyi is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout9 Jun 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad9 Jun 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Artur Andreychyk falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
Irakli Siradze knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Irakli Siradze trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market9 Jun 2031
The name of Luca Bărbulescu keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Inhulets say nothing, which says plenty.
Market9 Jun 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Jun 2031
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk 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.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
The numbers do not look good at Inhulets
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.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Artur Andreychyk 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.
Market2 Jun 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Artem Benediuk’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
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 Kevin Mignolet is on it.
Market2 Jun 2031
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Luca Bărbulescu has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Inhulets that is a harder question to answer.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
Tomas Jankto asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market2 Jun 2031
Inhulets have let the market know Oleksii Slutskyi can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom26 May 2031
Up they go: Inhulets promoted
Confirmed, mathematical, and a town awake all night. Whatever else the season contained, it finishes a division higher than it started.
Match26 May 2031
Inhulets refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 68 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad26 May 2031
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Inhulets will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad26 May 2031
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Boardroom26 May 2031
128% of the income goes out in wages at Inhulets
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.
Squad26 May 2031
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edoardo Sturli 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 dugout26 May 2031
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 Danila Slesarchuk is on it.
Market26 May 2031
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Inhulets know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout26 May 2031
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 Irakli Siradze has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 May 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inhulets can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 May 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 May 2031
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Andreychyk is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 May 2031
A fracture rules Bohdan Mohylnyi out for 21 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inhulets will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout12 May 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad12 May 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 May 2031
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Andreychyk 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 dugout12 May 2031
“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.
Market12 May 2031
The name of Luca Bărbulescu keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Inhulets say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 May 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 May 2031
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Boardroom5 May 2031
The numbers do not look good at Inhulets
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.
Market5 May 2031
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad5 May 2031
Edoardo Sturli falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout5 May 2031
“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 dugout5 May 2031
Artur Andreychyk asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market5 May 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Artem Benediuk’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout5 May 2031
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 Kevin Mignolet is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Apr 2031
35 days out for Bohdan Mohylnyi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Inhulets will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match28 Apr 2031
Inhulets up to position 2
68 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Artem Benediuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Apr 2031
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Artur Andreychyk 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.
Boardroom28 Apr 2031
Wages eat 123% of everything Inhulets earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Irakli Siradze, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
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 Danila Slesarchuk is on it.
Market28 Apr 2031
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Inhulets know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Apr 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market21 Apr 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inhulets can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Apr 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Andreychyk 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 dugout21 Apr 2031
Nobody at Inhulets will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout21 Apr 2031
The manager makes an example of Stepan Gomonov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Apr 2031
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 dugout14 Apr 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad14 Apr 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
“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.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edoardo Sturli 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 dugout14 Apr 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luca Bărbulescu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market14 Apr 2031
The name of Luca Bărbulescu keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Inhulets say nothing, which says plenty.
Market14 Apr 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Luca Bărbulescu wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Inhulets have no good answer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Apr 2031
A fracture rules Bohdan Mohylnyi out for 58 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inhulets will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Inhulets may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk 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.
Boardroom7 Apr 2031
The numbers do not look good at Inhulets
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.
Squad7 Apr 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Orest Kuzyk and Inhulets agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Andreychyk is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market7 Apr 2031
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luca Bărbulescu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market7 Apr 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Artem Benediuk’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Mar 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match31 Mar 2031
Inhulets up to position 2
68 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Artem Benediuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Andreychyk 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.
Boardroom31 Mar 2031
Wages eat 125% of everything Inhulets earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout31 Mar 2031
Danila Slesarchuk has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Inhulets will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market31 Mar 2031
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Inhulets know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market31 Mar 2031
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Luca Bărbulescu may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout31 Mar 2031
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 Irakli Siradze has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Mar 2031
A fracture rules Bohdan Mohylnyi out for 72 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inhulets will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market24 Mar 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inhulets can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Mar 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Mar 2031
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edoardo Sturli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
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 Vitalii Zhupanskyi is on it.
Market24 Mar 2031
The name of Serhii Kyslenko keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Inhulets say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Mar 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad17 Mar 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Artur Andreychyk 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.
Market17 Mar 2031
The name of Luca Bărbulescu keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Inhulets say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Mar 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk 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.
Boardroom10 Mar 2031
The numbers do not look good at Inhulets
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.
Transfer targets10 Mar 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dynamo Kyiv have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Artur Andreychyk falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
The manager makes an example of Irakli Siradze
“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 dugout10 Mar 2031
Artur Andreychyk asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market10 Mar 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Artem Benediuk’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market10 Mar 2031
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Inhulets, another week without a signature from Dmytro Makotiak.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Mar 2031
A fracture rules Bohdan Mohylnyi out for 93 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inhulets will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match3 Mar 2031
Inhulets are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 68 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Dmytro Makotiak arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Dmytro Makotiak has, at Inhulets, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad3 Mar 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Artem Benediuk and Inhulets agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Artem Benediuk 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.
Transfer targets3 Mar 2031
Inhulets asked and Bukovyna said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom3 Mar 2031
127% of the income goes out in wages at Inhulets
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.
Market3 Mar 2031
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout3 Mar 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danila Slesarchuk, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Feb 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 Feb 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom24 Feb 2031
Inhulets close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 8 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.
Squad24 Feb 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Feb 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Artur Andreychyk falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ihor Kohut, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Feb 2031
107 days out for Bohdan Mohylnyi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Inhulets will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad17 Feb 2031
25 goals and a season average of 7.58. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match15 Feb 2031
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Nyva, and it could have been more.
Match17 Feb 2031
Full time on the season at Inhulets
Position 2 on 68 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.
Squad17 Feb 2031
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match15 Feb 2031
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Inhulets did not have in the autumn.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad17 Feb 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings17 Feb 2031
Luca Bărbulescu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.69. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Feb 2031
114 days out for Bohdan Mohylnyi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Inhulets will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad10 Feb 2031
27 goals and a season average of 7.51. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match8 Feb 2031
The run at home goes on for Inhulets
17 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings10 Feb 2031
A brace, and Serhii Kyslenko takes the afternoon — 8.73
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Serhii Kyslenko provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market10 Feb 2031
Inhulets say no — this time
The offer from Dynamo Kyiv for Ihor Kohut 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.
Match8 Feb 2031
Still nobody has beaten Inhulets
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk 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.
Boardroom10 Feb 2031
The numbers do not look good at Inhulets
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.
Match8 Feb 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Serhii Kyslenko. 3‑1 against Livyi Bereh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match3 Feb 2031
Inhulets are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 62 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad3 Feb 2031
A season average of 7.54 with 22 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match1 Feb 2031
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Inhulets did not have in the autumn.
Squad3 Feb 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stanislav-Nuri Malysh and Inhulets agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Zaur Baisurkaev gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Zaur Baisurkaev has just signed for Inhulets, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Artem Benediuk 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.
Transfer targets3 Feb 2031
Inhulets asked and Bukovyna 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 terraces3 Feb 2031
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.
The dugout3 Feb 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market27 Jan 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match25 Jan 2031
Inhulets make home a hard place to visit
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Defences have started doubling up on Luca Bărbulescu
21 goals and a season average of 7.52 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings27 Jan 2031
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match25 Jan 2031
Still nobody has beaten Inhulets
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad27 Jan 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Artur Andreychyk falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets27 Jan 2031
Dynamo Kyiv have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout27 Jan 2031
The team sheet said everything about Orest Kuzyk
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Orest Kuzyk.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match18 Jan 2031
2 behind and going nowhere, until Serhii Kyslenko decided otherwise. Prykarpattia had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Defences have started doubling up on Serhii Kyslenko
25 goals and a season average of 7.49 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad20 Jan 2031
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.
Player ratings20 Jan 2031
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout20 Jan 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match18 Jan 2031
Inhulets make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Inhulets have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad20 Jan 2031
A falling-out at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match18 Jan 2031
Prykarpattia made Inhulets work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings20 Jan 2031
Ninety minutes of Serhii Kyslenko at his very best
Marked 8.59. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Inhulets.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings13 Jan 2031
Two goals and a mark of 9.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad13 Jan 2031
24 goals and a season average of 7.46. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match11 Jan 2031
Inhulets make home a hard place to visit
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk 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.
Boardroom13 Jan 2031
The numbers do not look good at Inhulets
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.
Match11 Jan 2031
Still nobody has beaten Inhulets
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match11 Jan 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luca Bărbulescu. 3‑1 against Podillia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Artur Andreychyk falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout13 Jan 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match4 Jan 2031
Bohdan Mohylnyi wins it after the whistle should have gone
94 minutes played. Bohdan Mohylnyi found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Metalist went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Match6 Jan 2031
Inhulets are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 54 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad6 Jan 2031
A season average of 7.43 with 23 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match4 Jan 2031
The run at home goes on for Inhulets
14 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad6 Jan 2031
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Inhulets had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Artem Benediuk 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.
Squad6 Jan 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mykyta Kononov and Inhulets agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match4 Jan 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bohdan Mohylnyi. 2‑1 against Metalist, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces6 Jan 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Dec 2030
Serhii Kyslenko had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Ahrobiznes were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings30 Dec 2030
A brace, and Serhii Kyslenko takes the afternoon — 8.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Serhii Kyslenko provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Serhii Kyslenko
22 goals and a season average of 7.41 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad30 Dec 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Looking ahead30 Dec 2030
Top-of-the-table clash for Inhulets
Metalist next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Player ratings30 Dec 2030
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
Ihor Kohut gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match28 Dec 2030
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad30 Dec 2030
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yevhen Maiakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match21 Dec 2030
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑2 against Metalurh Zaporizhzhia, and it could have been more.
Player ratings23 Dec 2030
Two goals and a mark of 9.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad23 Dec 2030
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad23 Dec 2030
A season average of 7.47 with 18 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match21 Dec 2030
The run at home goes on for Inhulets
13 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings23 Dec 2030
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match21 Dec 2030
Nobody wants to play Inhulets right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad23 Dec 2030
A falling-out at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad16 Dec 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Luca Bărbulescu
15 goals and a season average of 7.39 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk 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.
Boardroom16 Dec 2030
Inhulets counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Inhulets now.
Squad16 Dec 2030
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artur Andreychyk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings16 Dec 2030
Marked 8.92 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match14 Dec 2030
Poltava made Inhulets work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings16 Dec 2030
Marked 8.61 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match14 Dec 2030
Inhulets settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Poltava spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match7 Dec 2030
5‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Match9 Dec 2030
Inhulets are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 44 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings9 Dec 2030
Two goals and a mark of 9.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match7 Dec 2030
The run at home goes on for Inhulets
12 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad9 Dec 2030
18 goals and a season average of 7.29. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Illia Hadzhuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings9 Dec 2030
Serhii Kyslenko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.98. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The terraces9 Dec 2030
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Luca Bărbulescu 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.
Match7 Dec 2030
Feniks blown away early
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Feniks tried to reorganise, Inhulets did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Dec 2030
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad2 Dec 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Dec 2030
12 goals and a season average of 7.30. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Andreychyk 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.
Match30 Nov 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match30 Nov 2030
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout2 Dec 2030
“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.
Market2 Dec 2030
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout2 Dec 2030
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings25 Nov 2030
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match23 Nov 2030
Serhii Kyslenko wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Serhii Kyslenko found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Probiy went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Match23 Nov 2030
Inhulets cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Match23 Nov 2030
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad25 Nov 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Serhii Kyslenko
17 goals and a season average of 7.25 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad25 Nov 2030
A falling-out at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Artur Andreychyk falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match23 Nov 2030
Three points for Inhulets, 2‑1 the final word against Probiy in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Nov 2030
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match16 Nov 2030
Chernihiv will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Inhulets were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market18 Nov 2030
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match16 Nov 2030
Inhulets cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad18 Nov 2030
16 goals and a season average of 7.23. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk 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.
Player ratings18 Nov 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.94, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match16 Nov 2030
Serhii Kyslenko among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Serhii Kyslenko on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Inhulets and Chernihiv.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Nov 2030
Victoriia Sumy will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Inhulets were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Match11 Nov 2030
Inhulets refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 35 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
Two goals and a mark of 9.07 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Artem Benediuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Artur Andreychyk 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.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Luca Bărbulescu
11 goals and a season average of 7.23 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
Marked 8.34 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Boardroom11 Nov 2030
Wages swallow 122% of the Inhulets income
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.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
The manager makes an example of Mykyta Kononov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Oct 2030
The cup run ends for Inhulets
0‑1 against Shakhtar, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad4 Nov 2030
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.
Match2 Nov 2030
The run at home goes on for Inhulets
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad4 Nov 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Artur Andreychyk falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match2 Nov 2030
Nyva made Inhulets work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings4 Nov 2030
Ninety minutes of Luca Bărbulescu at his very best
Marked 8.22. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Inhulets.
Match4 Nov 2030
Inhulets at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 2, 32 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout4 Nov 2030
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout28 Oct 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad28 Oct 2030
A falling-out at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Oct 2030
The medical room confirms 32 days on the sidelines for Volodymyr Nazarenko, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The terraces28 Oct 2030
He is 23 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.
Match26 Oct 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luca Bărbulescu. 2‑0 against Livyi Bereh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match26 Oct 2030
Inhulets keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad28 Oct 2030
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
A performance of 8.06 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Oct 2030
UCSA punish Inhulets for switching off
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Serhii Kyslenko will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Inhulets escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Squad21 Oct 2030
A falling-out at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom21 Oct 2030
Inhulets counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Inhulets now.
Match19 Oct 2030
The run at home goes on for Inhulets
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Artur Andreychyk falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
The manager makes an example of Ihor Kohut
“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.
Match19 Oct 2030
It needed Serhii Kyslenko to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against UCSA, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings21 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
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.” Denys Kravets chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match14 Oct 2030
Inhulets are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 25 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings14 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match12 Oct 2030
Inhulets make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Inhulets have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad14 Oct 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Oct 2030
Bukovyna made Inhulets work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings14 Oct 2030
Serhii Kyslenko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Boardroom14 Oct 2030
Wages eat 111% of everything Inhulets earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market14 Oct 2030
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Denys Kravets could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Oct 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad7 Oct 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Serhii Kyslenko and Inhulets agree another 4 years.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Artem Benediuk 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.
Match5 Oct 2030
Prykarpattia made Inhulets work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market7 Oct 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vitaliy Tsygankov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market7 Oct 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yaroslav Haiduchok is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market7 Oct 2030
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Maksym Shaparenko has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.65, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout7 Oct 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nazar Prykhodko, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Sep 2030
5 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match28 Sep 2030
6‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad30 Sep 2030
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk 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.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.93, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match28 Sep 2030
Serhii Kyslenko among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Serhii Kyslenko on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Inhulets and Podillia.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Artur Andreychyk falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces30 Sep 2030
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.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Luca Bărbulescu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.76. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Sep 2030
After 14 games, Inhulets finally taste it again
The first defeat in 14 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Metalist; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad23 Sep 2030
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.
Squad23 Sep 2030
A falling-out at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom23 Sep 2030
Inhulets counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Inhulets now.
Match21 Sep 2030
1‑2 to Metalist, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
Chances created: 11. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
The manager makes an example of Edoardo Sturli
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Sep 2030
Whatever happens, Inhulets do not lose
14 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings16 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad16 Sep 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Bărbulescu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout16 Sep 2030
“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.
Match14 Sep 2030
Late, late show earns Inhulets a point
Minute 94, against Ahrobiznes, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Match14 Sep 2030
It needed Oleksandr Yevtushenko to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Ahrobiznes, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Boardroom16 Sep 2030
Wages swallow 92% of the Inhulets income
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.
Market16 Sep 2030
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
In brief
-
Squad
6 new faces, and Inhulets are still learning each other
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
Squad
The formation has left Tomas Jankto behind
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Sep 2030
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation Inhulets did not have in the autumn.
Market9 Sep 2030
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom9 Sep 2030
Window shuts: 27 in, 24 out at Inhulets
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 27 arrived, 24 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Artem Benediuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad9 Sep 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Orest Kuzyk and Inhulets agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Sep 2030
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Bărbulescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match7 Sep 2030
Inhulets keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
The dugout9 Sep 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luca Bărbulescu, and the manager let it.
Match7 Sep 2030
It finished 1‑0, and it was Serhii Kyslenko’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Inhulets.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Aug 2030
Inhulets through in the cup
A 2‑1 win over Kudrivka, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match28 Aug 2030
Danila Slesarchuk wins it after the whistle should have gone
95 minutes played. Danila Slesarchuk found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Kudrivka went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Match31 Aug 2030
Still nobody has beaten Inhulets
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market2 Sep 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout2 Sep 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Inhulets may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market2 Sep 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Inhulets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout2 Sep 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Transfer targets2 Sep 2030
The deal with Dynamo Kyiv 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.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Aug 2030
Kyrylo Makarenko damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Match24 Aug 2030
Whatever happens, Inhulets do not lose
10 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
The dugout26 Aug 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market26 Aug 2030
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market26 Aug 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Inhulets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom26 Aug 2030
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad26 Aug 2030
A falling-out at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom26 Aug 2030
Belts tighten at Inhulets
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Match24 Aug 2030
A 3‑2 win over Feniks, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Aug 2030
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Inhulets lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout19 Aug 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings19 Aug 2030
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match17 Aug 2030
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Inhulets did not have in the autumn.
Squad19 Aug 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Aug 2030
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 dugout19 Aug 2030
Ihor Kohut gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match17 Aug 2030
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Inhulets had all but put away. Vorskla will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
The dugout19 Aug 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Aug 2030
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Inhulets lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout12 Aug 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings12 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match10 Aug 2030
Whatever happens, Inhulets do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Artem Benediuk 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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanislav-Nuri Malysh 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.
Match10 Aug 2030
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout12 Aug 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Irakli Siradze, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Inhulets are still strangers to each other
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Aug 2030
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Inhulets lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match3 Aug 2030
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Chernihiv, and it could have been more.
Player ratings5 Aug 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.99, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings5 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match3 Aug 2030
Inhulets cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market5 Aug 2030
Only the photograph left for Yevhen Maiakov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yevhen Maiakov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market5 Aug 2030
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout5 Aug 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Jul 2030
A fracture rules Vitalii Dubilei out for 37 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inhulets will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Denys Pikhalyonok damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Market29 Jul 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Inhulets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market29 Jul 2030
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match27 Jul 2030
Inhulets cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad29 Jul 2030
A falling-out at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom29 Jul 2030
5 academy graduates step up at Inhulets
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Boardroom29 Jul 2030
The numbers do not look good at Inhulets
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.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Jul 2030
44 days out for Vitalii Dubilei after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Inhulets will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad22 Jul 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Denys Pikhalyonok
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inhulets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match22 Jul 2030
Inhulets refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 64 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market22 Jul 2030
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Jul 2030
A falling-out at Inhulets
Vitalii Dubilei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Luca Bărbulescu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout22 Jul 2030
“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.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
Bukovyna have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Jul 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market15 Jul 2030
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Karpaty waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Inhulets is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Denys Pikhalyonok damages knee ligaments — 44 days out
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.
Market15 Jul 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Inhulets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
No thanks: Dmytro Pozhar rejects the move
Inhulets had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dynamo Kyiv, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Vitalii Dubilei 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.
Squad15 Jul 2030
At 16 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.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market15 Jul 2030
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Jul 2030
58 days out for Vitalii Dubilei after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Inhulets will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market8 Jul 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market8 Jul 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad8 Jul 2030
At 23 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.
Squad8 Jul 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stanislav-Nuri Malysh and Inhulets agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Vitalii Dubilei 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 dugout8 Jul 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market8 Jul 2030
Karpaty are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Inhulets will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
Wages eat 90% of everything Inhulets earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Jul 2030
A fracture rules Vitalii Dubilei out for 65 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inhulets will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Jul 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market1 Jul 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Inhulets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 Jul 2030
At 23 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.
Squad1 Jul 2030
A move Eduards Bulvitis would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Eduards Bulvitis is living that version at Inhulets, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad1 Jul 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom1 Jul 2030
The numbers do not look good at Inhulets
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.
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
Dynamo Kyiv have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market1 Jul 2030
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Inhulets could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Jun 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match24 Jun 2030
Inhulets are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 64 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Danila Slesarchuk arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Danila Slesarchuk has, at Inhulets, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market24 Jun 2030
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom24 Jun 2030
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad24 Jun 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Bărbulescu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets24 Jun 2030
A loan enquiry to Shakhtar: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout24 Jun 2030
Vitalii Dubilei asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jun 2030
79 days out for Vitalii Dubilei after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Inhulets will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market17 Jun 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Artem Benediuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artur Andreychyk 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 dugout17 Jun 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mykyta Kononov, and the manager let it.
Market17 Jun 2030
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
Shakhtar have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
Shakhtar have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market17 Jun 2030
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Inhulets has been clear about where Dmitriy Leontyuk stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Jun 2030
86 days out for Vitalii Dubilei after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Inhulets will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market10 Jun 2030
“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 Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 Jun 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vitalii Dubilei will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk 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 dugout10 Jun 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad10 Jun 2030
Luca Bărbulescu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout10 Jun 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market10 Jun 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Inhulets, another week without a signature from Mykyta Kononov.
The dugout10 Jun 2030
Mykyta Kononov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mykyta Kononov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Jun 2030
93 days out for Vitalii Dubilei after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Inhulets will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout3 Jun 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Market3 Jun 2030
The shirt still fits. Oleksii Slutskyi is back at Inhulets, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad3 Jun 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
The numbers do not look good at Inhulets
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.
Squad3 Jun 2030
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Bărbulescu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Jun 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luca Bărbulescu, and the manager let it.
Squad3 Jun 2030
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 May 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad27 May 2030
A season's verdict on Uros Mitrovic: the best of his age
Inhulets have a 18-year-old the division has just voted its finest young footballer. The club's next problem is that everybody else now knows it too.
Match27 May 2030
Inhulets refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 64 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad27 May 2030
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Inhulets have had the benefit of it.
Squad27 May 2030
A falling-out at Inhulets
Vitalii Dubilei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout27 May 2030
Orest Kuzyk gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout27 May 2030
Luca Bărbulescu asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market27 May 2030
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Inhulets money.
Market27 May 2030
The name of Artem Benediuk keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Inhulets say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 May 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market20 May 2030
Heorhiy Popov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inhulets can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 May 2030
Artem Benediuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 May 2030
Dmitriy Leontyuk falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout20 May 2030
Uros Mitrovic has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Inhulets will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout20 May 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Grigory Ladin, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 May 2030
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.
Market20 May 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Inhulets know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad20 May 2030
A wage question at Inhulets
Artur Andreychyk has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 May 2030
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Inhulets will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market13 May 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market13 May 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Inhulets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 May 2030
A season average of 7.36 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Inhulets know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad13 May 2030
Vitalii Dubilei 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 dugout13 May 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad13 May 2030
Luca Bărbulescu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout13 May 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Irakli Siradze, and the manager let it.
Market13 May 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Inhulets know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 May 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom6 May 2030
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Squad6 May 2030
A falling-out at Inhulets
Artem Benediuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom6 May 2030
Belts tighten at Inhulets
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad6 May 2030
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Bărbulescu 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.
Boardroom6 May 2030
Wages swallow 102% of the Inhulets income
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.
Squad6 May 2030
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Vitalii Zhupanskyi has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout6 May 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Inhulets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market6 May 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bohdan Mohylnyi signs something — a contract at Inhulets or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Apr 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Inhulets will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match29 Apr 2030
Inhulets up to position 3
64 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad29 Apr 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
The manager makes an example of Mykyta Kononov
“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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Leontyuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market29 Apr 2030
The clock does Vitalii Dubilei’s negotiating for him
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Inhulets could ask drops and the wages Vitalii Dubilei can ask rise.