From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Oct 2029
There were 13 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match29 Sep 2029
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.
Match29 Sep 2029
Beaten 0‑4 by Shakhtar, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad1 Oct 2029
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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 dugout1 Oct 2029
The manager makes an example of Anton Zadereiko
“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.
Boardroom1 Oct 2029
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.
Market1 Oct 2029
“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 dugout1 Oct 2029
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Sep 2029
10 matches without a win for Inhulets
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Inhulets are no longer polite ones.
Match22 Sep 2029
Chastening afternoon for Inhulets
A 1‑4 beating by Oleksandriya was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match24 Sep 2029
Inhulets sink to position 16
1 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad24 Sep 2029
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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Inhulets can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad24 Sep 2029
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 dugout24 Sep 2029
The manager makes an example of Illia Hadzhuk
“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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Andrii Melenchuk 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.
Boardroom24 Sep 2029
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
Crisis
Squad17 Sep 2029
21 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.
Match15 Sep 2029
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.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
“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 ratings17 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 Sep 2029
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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 targets17 Sep 2029
Inhulets asked and Boca Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match15 Sep 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Štěpán Chaluš, and the manager let it.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Jhonnatan asks for a word with the manager
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Looking ahead
A reunion for Jhonnatan
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Sep 2029
Anton Zadereiko 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.
Match8 Sep 2029
The wait goes on for Inhulets
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market10 Sep 2029
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.
Boardroom10 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 16 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.
Transfer targets10 Sep 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Inhulets have done the hard part with Chornomorets, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Sep 2029
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.
Match8 Sep 2029
Kolos left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 targets10 Sep 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lech have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Sep 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Anton Zadereiko
36 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.
Match29 Aug 2029
The cup run ends for Inhulets
1‑2 against Kolos, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad3 Sep 2029
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.
Match1 Sep 2029
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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Valerii Kosivskyi 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. Valerii Kosivskyi has, at Inhulets, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets3 Sep 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Inhulets have done the hard part with Shakhtar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad3 Sep 2029
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.
Transfer targets3 Sep 2029
Inhulets asked and AEL Larisa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match1 Sep 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Aug 2029
Anton Zadereiko damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match25 Aug 2029
Beaten 0‑3 by Polissia, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Inhulets may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market27 Aug 2029
“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.
Match25 Aug 2029
The wait goes on for Inhulets
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Ronald Mayo is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Match25 Aug 2029
The goals have deserted Inhulets
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Inhulets can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad27 Aug 2029
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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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
Squad20 Aug 2029
51 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.
Match18 Aug 2029
Chastening afternoon for Inhulets
A 0‑5 beating by Kryvbas was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market20 Aug 2029
Ronald Mayo 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.
Match18 Aug 2029
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.
Match18 Aug 2029
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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Illia Ukhan 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 Aug 2029
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 targets20 Aug 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cobresal have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom20 Aug 2029
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
Squad13 Aug 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Anton Zadereiko
58 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.
Match11 Aug 2029
0‑6 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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market13 Aug 2029
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.
Market13 Aug 2029
“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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
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 Aug 2029
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Inhulets and Dynamo Kyiv in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match11 Aug 2029
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 targets13 Aug 2029
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
Squad6 Aug 2029
Anton Zadereiko damages knee ligaments — 65 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
Match4 Aug 2029
Chastening afternoon for Inhulets
A 0‑3 beating by Zorya was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market6 Aug 2029
Artem Benediuk has one foot out of the door
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.
Match4 Aug 2029
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 14 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Market6 Aug 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ventforet Kofu waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Inhulets is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market6 Aug 2029
“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.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Anton Zadereiko has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad6 Aug 2029
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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
At 26 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Jul 2029
Anton Zadereiko damages knee ligaments — 72 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 72 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match28 Jul 2029
Still nobody has beaten Inhulets
The unbeaten run reaches 14. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match28 Jul 2029
Inhulets make home a hard place to visit
13 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
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.
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
Everything agreed with Rukh, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Metalist keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad30 Jul 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Inhulets can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad30 Jul 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Jul 2029
80 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
The step up is real for Jayden Rus
At 20 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Illia Ukhan has improved at 26, 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.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Metalist have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to AEL Larisa: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
Ronald Mayo 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 Ronald Mayo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market23 Jul 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Serhii Kyslenko signs something — a contract at Inhulets or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
Vitalii Rozhko 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Jul 2029
Anton Zadereiko damages knee ligaments — 87 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dmytro Bezkleinyi is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad16 Jul 2029
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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Illia Hadzhuk has improved at 26, 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.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
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.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
Inhulets asked and Botosani said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to Kudrivka: 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 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to Olympiacos: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
A promise honoured at Inhulets
Something was said to Niko Hukka and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Jul 2029
Anton Zadereiko damages knee ligaments — 94 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 94 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.
Market9 Jul 2029
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.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad9 Jul 2029
At 29 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 targets9 Jul 2029
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.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Botosani 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 dugout9 Jul 2029
The manager makes an example of Nikos Vlioras
“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
Squad2 Jul 2029
102 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.
Market2 Jul 2029
“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 dugout2 Jul 2029
“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.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
The deal with Shakhtar is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Štěpán Chaluš is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Ukhan 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 Jul 2029
A late step up for Jhonnatan
At 24 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 targets2 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vorskla have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market2 Jul 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Maksym Sydorchuk 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Jun 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Anton Zadereiko
109 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.
Market25 Jun 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Inhulets have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Everything agreed with Kudrivka, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad25 Jun 2029
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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 targets25 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Metalist have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market25 Jun 2029
Artem Benediuk is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Inhulets has been clear about where Artem Benediuk stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market25 Jun 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Serhii Kyslenko signs something — a contract at Inhulets or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
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
Squad18 Jun 2029
Anton Zadereiko damages knee ligaments — 116 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
Market18 Jun 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Inhulets have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad18 Jun 2029
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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rukh have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Inhulets told Artem Benediuk something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
A loan enquiry to Rukh: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
Inhulets have made the call to Shakhtar. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jun 2029
123 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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
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.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ronald Mayo, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Jun 2029
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Inhulets are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Thanos Sitmalidis 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.
Market11 Jun 2029
6 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
Upbeat
Squad4 Jun 2029
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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Bohdan Mohylnyi 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Inhulets know which stage they are at.
Squad4 Jun 2029
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Inhulets are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
“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 dugout4 Jun 2029
Ronald Mayo knocks on the manager's door
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom28 May 2029
Promotion, confirmed and mathematical, and a town that will not sleep much tonight. Whatever else this season had in it, it ends a division higher than it began.
Market28 May 2029
Only the photograph left for Artem Benediuk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Benediuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market28 May 2029
“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.
Squad28 May 2029
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.
Squad28 May 2029
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.
Squad28 May 2029
Andrii Melenchuk 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.
Squad28 May 2029
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Inhulets are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout28 May 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Oleksandr Dykhtiaruk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market28 May 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Serhii Kyslenko’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 May 2029
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.
Boardroom21 May 2029
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.
Squad21 May 2029
Andrii Melenchuk 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 May 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Oleksandr Dykhtiaruk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market21 May 2029
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.
Squad21 May 2029
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Inhulets have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 May 2029
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Ukhan 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.
Squad14 May 2029
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 May 2029
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 Alisson Oliveira Da Silva has written the date down.
Market14 May 2029
7 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.
The dugout14 May 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Thanos Sitmalidis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad14 May 2029
Word from the training ground: Vitalii Dubilei
The sharpest man in every session this week, by all accounts. Lines like this run the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 May 2029
Inhulets up to position 2
63 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad7 May 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Stanislav-Nuri Malysh commits to Inhulets for another 2 years.
Squad7 May 2029
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.
Squad7 May 2029
Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 dugout7 May 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Inhulets told Anton Zadereiko something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market7 May 2029
Vitalii Rozhko is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Inhulets has been clear about where Vitalii Rozhko stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Apr 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market30 Apr 2029
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.
Market30 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Andrii Melenchuk 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 dugout30 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mykyta Turchynov, and the manager let it.
Market30 Apr 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Serhii Kyslenko’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
Vitalii Rozhko 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.
Market30 Apr 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Régis Potiguar may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Apr 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Apr 2029
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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom23 Apr 2029
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 dugout23 Apr 2029
“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.
Market23 Apr 2029
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
Upbeat
Squad16 Apr 2029
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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Apr 2029
No place for Štěpán Chaluš in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Inhulets are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Oleksandr Yevtushenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market16 Apr 2029
“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 Régis Potiguar.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Apr 2029
Inhulets up to position 2
63 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad9 Apr 2029
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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
A new face in his position, and Stanislav-Nuri Malysh suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Inhulets have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Apr 2029
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.
Market2 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Kamil Lipiński gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kamil Lipiński has just signed for Inhulets, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad2 Apr 2029
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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Bohdan Mohylnyi 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
No place for Kamil Lipiński in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Inhulets are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
“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.
Market2 Apr 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Serhii Kyslenko’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market2 Apr 2029
“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
Upbeat
Squad26 Mar 2029
Illia Ukhan 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom26 Mar 2029
Inhulets counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Inhulets now.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
“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.
Market26 Mar 2029
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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Inhulets have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Yehor Kniazev 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Mykyta Turchynov 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 dugout19 Mar 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Mar 2029
Inhulets are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 63 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad12 Mar 2029
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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 targets12 Mar 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slavia Prague have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
“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 dugout12 Mar 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Mar 2029
Artem Benediuk has one foot out of the door
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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bohdan Mohylnyi and Inhulets agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Mar 2029
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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 targets5 Mar 2029
Inhulets asked and Berekum Chelsea said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad5 Mar 2029
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nazariy Matvienko is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
“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 dugout5 Mar 2029
“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.
Market5 Mar 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Serhii Kyslenko’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market26 Feb 2029
“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.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Window shuts: 2 in, 4 out at Inhulets
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad26 Feb 2029
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 targets26 Feb 2029
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.
Transfer targets26 Feb 2029
A loan move for Ondřej Suchý is in the works
Inhulets have made the call to Slavia Prague. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Wages swallow 87% 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.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Inhulets counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Inhulets now.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
“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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mykyta Turchynov 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
Match17 Feb 2029
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation Inhulets did not have in the autumn.
Match19 Feb 2029
Inhulets finish in position 2
63 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.
Market19 Feb 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Inhulets have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match17 Feb 2029
Inhulets strike at the death to beat Nyva
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Nyva had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Inhulets did not stop to explain themselves.
Market19 Feb 2029
“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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Bohdan Mohylnyi
20 goals and a season average of 7.46 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Transfer targets19 Feb 2029
Everything agreed with Picerno, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad19 Feb 2029
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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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
Match10 Feb 2029
Whatever happens, Inhulets do not lose
12 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.
Match12 Feb 2029
Inhulets are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 60 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match10 Feb 2029
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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
A falling-out at Inhulets
Illia Ukhan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market12 Feb 2029
The phone has started ringing about Nikos Vlioras again, and this time the name on the line is Minsk. Inhulets are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 targets12 Feb 2029
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.
Match10 Feb 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Serhii Kyslenko. 1‑0 against Livyi Bereh, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad12 Feb 2029
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Feb 2029
“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 ratings5 Feb 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.18, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market5 Feb 2029
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.
Match3 Feb 2029
Still nobody has beaten Inhulets
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Cristian Barsacchi 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.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Illia Ukhan in a row with a teammate
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 targets5 Feb 2029
Inhulets asked and CFR Cluj said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match3 Feb 2029
Inhulets rescue it on 90 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. UCSA had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Match3 Feb 2029
Inhulets and UCSA take a point apiece
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad29 Jan 2029
A season average of 7.46 with 19 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match27 Jan 2029
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.
Match27 Jan 2029
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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
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.
Match27 Jan 2029
Three points for Inhulets, 1‑0 the final word against Bukovyna in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad29 Jan 2029
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 Jan 2029
“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 ratings22 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Match20 Jan 2029
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Inhulets did not have in the autumn.
Squad22 Jan 2029
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 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match20 Jan 2029
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
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.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
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 Oleksandr Yevtushenko.
Match20 Jan 2029
It needed Illia Hadzhuk to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Probiy, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match13 Jan 2029
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 7‑0 against Chernihiv, and it could have been more.
Squad15 Jan 2029
The match ball belongs to Serhii Kyslenko, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match13 Jan 2029
Inhulets cannot stop winning
5 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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
A season average of 7.45 with 18 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Inhulets may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market15 Jan 2029
“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.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Artem Benediuk pops up at the right end — 7.98
7.98, 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.
Match13 Jan 2029
Inhulets make home a hard place to visit
11 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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Jan 2029
“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.
Match8 Jan 2029
Inhulets up to position 2
49 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match6 Jan 2029
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Bohdan Mohylnyi scored in the 86th minute, Metalist had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Inhulets took the lot.
Market8 Jan 2029
Artem Benediuk has one foot out of the door
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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
17 goals and a season average of 7.40. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match6 Jan 2029
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.
Match6 Jan 2029
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Bohdan Mohylnyi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Dec 2028
Ahrobiznes will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Inhulets were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.18, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market1 Jan 2029
Denis Crişan 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
16 goals and a season average of 7.36. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match30 Dec 2028
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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danylo Shevchuk, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Dec 2028
“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 dugout25 Dec 2028
“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 ratings25 Dec 2028
Artem Benediuk pops up at the right end — 7.79
7.79, 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Ukhan 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.
Match23 Dec 2028
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.
Match23 Dec 2028
A 1‑0 win over Metalurh Zaporizhzhia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Marked 7.97. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
Wages swallow 93% 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 dugout25 Dec 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Pavlo Popov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Dec 2028
“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.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
A brace, and Bohdan Mohylnyi takes the afternoon — 9.03
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bohdan Mohylnyi provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
Dmytro Panchenko: 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Bohdan Mohylnyi
14 goals and a season average of 7.32 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Dec 2028
A falling-out at Inhulets
Illia Ukhan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Dec 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces18 Dec 2028
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match16 Dec 2028
Three points for Inhulets, 2‑0 the final word against Poltava in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Dec 2028
“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 ratings11 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market11 Dec 2028
Only the photograph left for Artem Benediuk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Benediuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 Dec 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Oleksandr Dykhtiaruk commits to Inhulets for another 3 years.
Squad11 Dec 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match9 Dec 2028
Inhulets make home a hard place to visit
8 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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad11 Dec 2028
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.
Boardroom11 Dec 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 38. 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.
Market4 Dec 2028
“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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
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.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.19, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match2 Dec 2028
The goal that put Prykarpattia ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Inhulets equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danylo Shevchuk, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Dec 2028
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Danylo Shevchuk 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Vasyl Matvienko named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Vasyl Matvienko is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Match2 Dec 2028
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match25 Nov 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑0 against Podillia, and it could have been more.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Two goals and a mark of 9.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market27 Nov 2028
“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.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Up for the corner, and Artem Benediuk delivers — 7.89
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Artem Benediuk scored, was marked 7.89, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad27 Nov 2028
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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Bohdan Mohylnyi
12 goals and a season average of 7.28 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. 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
Upbeat
Market20 Nov 2028
“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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match18 Nov 2028
A bad afternoon for Inhulets against Obolon
0‑1 to Obolon, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
Bohdan Mohylnyi ran the middle of the pitch — 7.00
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 7.00, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alisson Oliveira Da Silva, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad20 Nov 2028
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market13 Nov 2028
“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 Nov 2028
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.
Match13 Nov 2028
Inhulets up to position 3
32 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad13 Nov 2028
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.
Match11 Nov 2028
A 2‑1 win over Victoriia Sumy, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Looking ahead13 Nov 2028
The big one: Obolon come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Inhulets will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Squad13 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuriy Kravchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Pavlo Popov on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.31, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Inhulets may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Illia Ukhan 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.
Match4 Nov 2028
It finished 3‑2, and it was Serhii Kyslenko’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Inhulets.
Squad6 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
“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.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
A performance of 8.30 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad6 Nov 2028
10 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad6 Nov 2028
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout30 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Inhulets may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Ukhan 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Bohdan Mohylnyi 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.
Match28 Oct 2028
1‑2 to Livyi Bereh, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Marked 8.05 — 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.
Match28 Oct 2028
After 4 games, Inhulets finally taste it again
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Livyi Bereh; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad30 Oct 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Inhulets are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pavlo Popov after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
93% 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Oct 2028
“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.
Match21 Oct 2028
Inhulets make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Inhulets have 4 straight wins of it.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match21 Oct 2028
UCSA made Inhulets work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Ninety minutes of Jhonnatan at his very best
Marked 8.30. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Inhulets.
Squad23 Oct 2028
A falling-out at Inhulets
Nikos Vlioras and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“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 dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Pavlo Popov kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Mykyta Turchynov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Oct 2028
“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 Oct 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.87, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market16 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Artem Benediuk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Benediuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match14 Oct 2028
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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
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.
Match14 Oct 2028
Bukovyna made Inhulets work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad16 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
A performance of 8.99 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Zadereiko, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
A brace, and Bohdan Mohylnyi takes the afternoon — 9.05
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bohdan Mohylnyi provided it, and the 9.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Stanislav-Nuri Malysh commits to Inhulets for another 2 years.
Squad9 Oct 2028
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.
Match7 Oct 2028
Whatever happens, Inhulets do not lose
6 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.
Match7 Oct 2028
Probiy made Inhulets work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 terraces9 Oct 2028
Inhulets supporters have found a favourite in Jhonnatan
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jhonnatan 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.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
A masterclass from Jhonnatan
Marked 8.43 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Sep 2028
Inhulets win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Chernihiv will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Match2 Oct 2028
Inhulets are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 17 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“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.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
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.
Match30 Sep 2028
A 2‑1 win over Chernihiv, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces2 Oct 2028
At 21 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.
Match30 Sep 2028
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Serhii Kyslenko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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
Uneasy
Market25 Sep 2028
“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.
Match23 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Inhulets's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Inhulets has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad25 Sep 2028
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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets25 Sep 2028
Inhulets asked and Vorskla said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad25 Sep 2028
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 dugout25 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stanislav Ursolov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. 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 dugout25 Sep 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pavlo Popov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Inhulets dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Sep 2028
“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 ratings18 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
Market18 Sep 2028
Only the photograph left for Artem Benediuk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Benediuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
A mark of 7.98 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match16 Sep 2028
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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Illia Ukhan in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets18 Sep 2028
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 dugout18 Sep 2028
“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
Steady
Squad11 Sep 2028
15 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.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Inhulets close the window on a squad of their own making
13 in and 11 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Ukhan 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 targets11 Sep 2028
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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
25 shut-outs in 82 appearances. A keeper’s career is counted in games where nothing happened, and none of it happened by accident.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleksandr Dykhtiaruk, and the manager let it.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Inhulets counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Inhulets now.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Jhonnatan runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Half-satisfied: Pavlo Popov on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Sep 2028
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.
Match30 Aug 2028
The small margins put Inhulets out
Out, 1‑4 to Kudrivka, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 32. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The terraces4 Sep 2028
A cup hiding at Kudrivka leaves Inhulets explaining themselves
1-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 targets4 Sep 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Accrington Stanley have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match30 Aug 2028
No time for Kudrivka to settle
The goal that put Kudrivka ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Inhulets equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Match2 Sep 2028
Late, late show earns Inhulets a point
Minute 92, against Poltava, 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Nikos Vlioras 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
Upbeat
Squad28 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Panchenko
29 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.
Market28 Aug 2028
“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 ratings28 Aug 2028
Denis Crişan, 21, steals the show — 7.87
Marked 7.87 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match26 Aug 2028
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nikos Vlioras is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Aug 2028
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
At 25 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 targets28 Aug 2028
Inhulets asked and Kryvbas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces28 Aug 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Denis Crişan 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Panchenko
36 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.
Match19 Aug 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Prykarpattia, and it could have been more.
Market21 Aug 2028
“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.
Market21 Aug 2028
Only the photograph left for Artem Benediuk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Benediuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.07 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Inhulets may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Denis Crişan is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Aug 2028
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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Bohdan Mohylnyi has improved at 28, 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Panchenko
43 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.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alisson Oliveira Da Silva did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jhonnatan is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Aug 2028
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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Vitalii Dubilei has improved at 26, 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.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
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 terraces14 Aug 2028
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match12 Aug 2028
A 1‑0 win over Podillia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
In brief
-
Transfer targets
A loan move for Nazar Popov is in the works
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
-
Market
Stanislav Ursolov told to find a new club
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Aug 2028
Dmytro Panchenko damages knee ligaments — 51 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
Market7 Aug 2028
“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.
Match5 Aug 2028
The run is over for Inhulets
9 matches without defeat, and then Obolon. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad7 Aug 2028
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Illia Ukhan and Inhulets agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Aug 2028
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 targets7 Aug 2028
Inhulets asked and Metalist said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match5 Aug 2028
A bad afternoon for Inhulets against Obolon
1‑2 to Obolon, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Panchenko
58 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.
Market31 Jul 2028
“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.
Match29 Jul 2028
Still nobody has beaten Inhulets
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad31 Jul 2028
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Illia Ukhan in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Illia Hadzhuk has improved at 26, 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.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Inhulets
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kryvbas have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Panchenko
65 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.
Market24 Jul 2028
Only the photograph left for Artem Benediuk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Benediuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market24 Jul 2028
“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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad24 Jul 2028
A falling-out at Inhulets
Illia Ukhan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Bohdan Mohylnyi has improved at 28, 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.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Inhulets asked and Picerno said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
A loan move for Tutti is in the works
Inhulets have made the call to Rukh. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
A loan move for Ondřej Suchý is in the works
Inhulets have made the call to Slavia Prague. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Panchenko
72 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
The step up is real for Jhonnatan
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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
At 26 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo City have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleksandr Dykhtiaruk, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
A loan move for Sem Eekhout is in the works
Inhulets have made the call to Aris Thessaloniki. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
Inhulets counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Inhulets now.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
Artem Benediuk 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 Artem Benediuk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Panchenko
79 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
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 targets10 Jul 2028
Inhulets asked and Metalist said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
AZ 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 dugout10 Jul 2028
Artem Benediuk 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 Jul 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Serhii Kyslenko signs something — a contract at Inhulets or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Oliver Obel
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad10 Jul 2028
A season on the outside for Oliver Obel
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Inhulets has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market10 Jul 2028
“Ambitious players need ambitious projects. Draw your own conclusions.” Nazar Prykhodko’s representative said it with a smile, and made sure everyone wrote it down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Panchenko
87 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.
Market3 Jul 2028
“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.
Match3 Jul 2028
Inhulets are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 53 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market3 Jul 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nazar Prykhodko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market3 Jul 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Jul 2028
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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Maksym Solomakha 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. Maksym Solomakha has, at Inhulets, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 targets3 Jul 2028
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
Squad26 Jun 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Panchenko
94 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.
Market26 Jun 2028
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Serhii Kyslenko had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market26 Jun 2028
Artem Benediuk has one foot out of the door
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.
Market26 Jun 2028
Arsen Omarov 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.
Boardroom26 Jun 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lysandros Thomakos 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leones have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Nikos Vlioras
“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
Squad19 Jun 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Panchenko
101 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
Add another name to the list: Karpaty have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Serhii Kyslenko. The answer from Inhulets has not changed — yet.
Market19 Jun 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Everything agreed with Polissia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad19 Jun 2028
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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Santander have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
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 dugout19 Jun 2028
Denis Crişan 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
The name of Bohdan Mohylnyi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Inhulets say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jun 2028
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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Illia Ukhan 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 Jun 2028
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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
Steady
Match5 Jun 2028
Inhulets up to position 3
53 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market5 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nazar Prykhodko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Yevhen Yanovich 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Illia Ukhan in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
“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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Jhonnatan 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 dugout5 Jun 2028
“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.
Market5 Jun 2028
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
Squad29 May 2028
15 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.
Market29 May 2028
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.
Squad29 May 2028
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.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuriy Kravchuk 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.
Squad29 May 2028
A falling-out at Inhulets
Nikos Vlioras and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market29 May 2028
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
Squad22 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maksym Marlos
23 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.
The dugout22 May 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Inhulets may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 May 2028
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 May 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuriy Kravchuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom22 May 2028
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.
Market22 May 2028
The name of Bohdan Mohylnyi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Inhulets say nothing, which says plenty.
Market22 May 2028
2 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.
Squad22 May 2028
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Inhulets would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market22 May 2028
Inhulets have made Arsen Omarov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 May 2028
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.
Squad15 May 2028
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 May 2028
Arsen Omarov gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Arsen Omarov has just signed for Inhulets, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Zadereiko, and the manager let it.
Squad15 May 2028
No place for Arsen Omarov in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Inhulets are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match8 May 2028
Inhulets up to position 3
53 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market8 May 2028
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.
Squad8 May 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yuriy Kravchuk commits to Inhulets for another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
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 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Anton Zadereiko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad8 May 2028
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Inhulets would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 May 2028
Only the photograph left for Artem Benediuk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Benediuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market1 May 2028
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
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.
Squad1 May 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market1 May 2028
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.
Squad1 May 2028
A season on the outside for Denis Crişan
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Inhulets has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Apr 2028
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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Ukhan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Bohdan Mohylnyi 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.
Boardroom24 Apr 2028
Inhulets counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Inhulets now.
Market24 Apr 2028
The name of Bohdan Mohylnyi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Inhulets say nothing, which says plenty.
Market24 Apr 2028
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Inhulets money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Apr 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yevhen Yanovich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Illia Ukhan 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 dugout17 Apr 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yevhen Yanovich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market17 Apr 2028
5 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Inhulets money.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager plants his flag on Vitalii Dubilei
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Vitalii Dubilei’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match10 Apr 2028
Inhulets are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 53 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market10 Apr 2028
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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad10 Apr 2028
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 dugout10 Apr 2028
Dmytro Panchenko 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 Apr 2028
The clock does Yevhen Yanovich’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 Yevhen Yanovich can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Apr 2028
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.
Market3 Apr 2028
Only the photograph left for Artem Benediuk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Benediuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad3 Apr 2028
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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Inhulets will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Mar 2028
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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
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 Mar 2028
“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.
Boardroom27 Mar 2028
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.
Market27 Mar 2028
The name of Bohdan Mohylnyi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Inhulets say nothing, which says plenty.
Market27 Mar 2028
The clock does Nazar Prykhodko’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Inhulets could ask drops and the wages Nazar Prykhodko can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Mar 2028
30 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.
Market20 Mar 2028
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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Anton Zadereiko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad20 Mar 2028
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Inhulets has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Mar 2028
37 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 Mar 2028
Inhulets up to position 3
53 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market13 Mar 2028
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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Bohdan Mohylnyi 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Inhulets will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Mar 2028
46 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.
Market6 Mar 2028
Only the photograph left for Artem Benediuk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Benediuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
A falling-out at Inhulets
Illia Ukhan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets6 Mar 2028
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 dugout6 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Illia Hadzhuk, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Inhulets prefer.
Market6 Mar 2028
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 dugout6 Mar 2028
Denis Crişan 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 Denis Crişan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Feb 2028
54 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 dugout28 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Inhulets may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Window shuts: 2 in, 3 out at Inhulets
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets28 Feb 2028
Inhulets had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Barranquilla, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Inhulets
Illia Ukhan 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 targets28 Feb 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Los Andes have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“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.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Inhulets counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Inhulets now.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Feb 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
Match21 Feb 2028
Full time on the season at Inhulets
Position 3 on 53 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.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.99 for the rest of it.
Market21 Feb 2028
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.
Match19 Feb 2028
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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
Inhulets asked and Fenix said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Nikos Vlioras 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
Upbeat
Squad14 Feb 2028
69 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.
Match12 Feb 2028
3‑0, and Artem Benediuk took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Inhulets tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match14 Feb 2028
Inhulets refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 52 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.
Market14 Feb 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nazar Prykhodko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.98 for the rest of it.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Nikos Vlioras gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nikos Vlioras has just signed for Inhulets, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom14 Feb 2028
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.
Match12 Feb 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Inhulets did not have in the autumn.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 59. 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
77 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.
Market7 Feb 2028
Only the photograph left for Artem Benediuk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Benediuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Feb 2028
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.
Match5 Feb 2028
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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 Feb 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Santander have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces7 Feb 2028
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 dugout7 Feb 2028
“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
Squad31 Jan 2028
84 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.
Market31 Jan 2028
Karpaty 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.
Market31 Jan 2028
“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 ratings31 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad31 Jan 2028
A season average of 7.33 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad31 Jan 2028
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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 targets31 Jan 2028
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.
Match29 Jan 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Bohdan Mohylnyi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Inhulets.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Jan 2028
94 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Bohdan Mohylnyi
14 goals and a season average of 7.32 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad24 Jan 2028
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 ahead24 Jan 2028
Top-of-the-table clash for Inhulets
Vorskla 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.
Match22 Jan 2028
A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market24 Jan 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Yevhen Yanovich has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Inhulets.
Match22 Jan 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Probiy leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“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
Squad17 Jan 2028
The words a physio says slowly. 102 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.
Match17 Jan 2028
Inhulets up to position 3
44 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market17 Jan 2028
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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Illia Ukhan in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A season average of 7.30 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 terraces17 Jan 2028
Inhulets supporters have found a favourite in Jhonnatan
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jhonnatan 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.
Match15 Jan 2028
Three points for Inhulets, 2‑0 the final word against Chernihiv in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Ninety minutes of Jhonnatan at his very best
Marked 8.50. 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
Steady
Squad10 Jan 2028
110 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.
Market10 Jan 2028
Only the photograph left for Artem Benediuk
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artem Benediuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inhulets the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Dmytro Panchenko: 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 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Inhulets
Illia Ukhan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jan 2028
12 goals and a season average of 7.28. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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 dugout10 Jan 2028
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Inhulets pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Pavlo Popov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Andrii Melenchuk
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Jan 2028
117 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
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.
Match1 Jan 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Serhii Kyslenko. 2‑0 against Ahrobiznes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Yuriy Kravchuk
“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.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Jhonnatan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.41. 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.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Vitalii Dubilei was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Pavlo Popov kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Oleksii Slutskyi 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
Squad27 Dec 2027
124 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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.
Match25 Dec 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
A performance of 8.20 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“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.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
Wages swallow 91% 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 dugout27 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yevhen Yanovich, and the manager let it.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Dec 2027
132 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Poltava spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Match20 Dec 2027
Inhulets up to position 3
37 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market20 Dec 2027
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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces20 Dec 2027
The crowd has taken to Jhonnatan
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match18 Dec 2027
A 1‑0 win over Poltava, 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
Steady
Squad13 Dec 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 139 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market13 Dec 2027
Artem Benediuk has one foot out of the door
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.
Match11 Dec 2027
Inhulets make home a hard place to visit
10 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 Dec 2027
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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
12 goals and a season average of 7.33. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Serhii Kyslenko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.32. 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.
Match11 Dec 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Serhii Kyslenko. 3‑1 against Feniks, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad6 Dec 2027
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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Inhulets
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Mohylnyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match4 Dec 2027
A goal on 93 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Marked 7.66 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Inhulets had the best player on the pitch.
Match4 Dec 2027
It needed Serhii Kyslenko to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Prykarpattia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Pavlo Popov chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Andrii Melenchuk
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Market6 Dec 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Oleksii Slutskyi has his answer from Inhulets; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Nov 2027
Illia Ukhan in a row with a teammate
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 Nov 2027
Inhulets make home a hard place to visit
9 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
108% 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.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Marked 7.41 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Inhulets had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“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 dugout29 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Pavlo Popov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
Andrii Melenchuk dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Nov 2027
Inhulets refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 29 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 Nov 2027
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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Illia Ukhan 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.
Match20 Nov 2027
0‑2 to Kudrivka, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Pavlo Popov to a room that had heard them before.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Stanislav Ursolov
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Looking ahead22 Nov 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Podillia in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match13 Nov 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Victoriia Sumy, and it could have been more.
Market15 Nov 2027
Artem Benediuk has one foot out of the door
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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Bohdan Mohylnyi
12 goals and a season average of 7.36 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Bohdan Mohylnyi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.74, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match13 Nov 2027
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Victoriia Sumy tried to reorganise, Inhulets did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes of Serhii Kyslenko at his very best
Marked 8.25. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Inhulets.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Illia Hadzhuk
“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
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Match6 Nov 2027
The wait goes on for Inhulets
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad8 Nov 2027
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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Mohylnyi 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A season average of 7.30 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match6 Nov 2027
Inhulets make home a hard place to visit
8 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.
Match8 Nov 2027
Halfway: Inhulets sit in position 3
26 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Bohdan Mohylnyi
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Bohdan Mohylnyi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Inhulets have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match6 Nov 2027
Inhulets and Nyva take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.