“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 The request is on a desk at Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Epicentr; Inhulets go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
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.
Artem Benediuk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Veres have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 The request is on a desk at Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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.
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“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 The request is on a desk at Inhulets, and it is not being withdrawn.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 deal with LNZ is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Illia Hadzhuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Hadzhuk is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Anton Stepanenko after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Mykhailo Khromei will call it something else in private.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stanislav Ursolov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Serhii Kyslenko decided otherwise. Metalurh Zaporizhzhia had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Serhii Kyslenko provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.96 beside his name.
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Hadzhuk 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.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Artem Benediuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
“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 dugout3 Jan 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Anton Stepanenko to a room that had heard them before.
“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.
Metalurh Zaporizhzhia next, and one man in the Inhulets dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
0‑1 to Bukovyna, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Anton Stepanenko to a room that had heard them before.
“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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Murilo Rian is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nazar Prykhodko’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Inhulets needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“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.
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.
Artem Benediuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Maksym Luniov. 2‑0 against Prykarpattia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 7.62 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 dugout20 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Anton Stepanenko, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutIllia Hadzhuk asks for a word with the manager
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Illia Hadzhuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Inhulets told Nazar Prykhodko something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Anton Stepanenko after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Inhulets will try very hard not to make too much of it.
“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.
“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.
“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 Maksym Skorokhod.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
The dugoutVitalii Rozhko has become a man the manager trusts
At 18 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bohdan Mohylnyi. 1‑0 against Victoriia Sumy, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 7.22 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Position 8, 24 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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 Hadzhuk 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.
Yaroslav Karpizin 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Anton Stepanenko could afford to be generous.
“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.
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 Nov 2027
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanislav Ursolov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Something was said to Maksym Luniov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
Nyva next, and one man in the Inhulets dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Zorya ended it 0‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The terraces8 Nov 2027
Inhulets are taken apart by Zorya — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Artem Benediuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Illia Hadzhuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutIllia Hadzhuk knocks on the manager’s door
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.97, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Artem Benediuk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Hadzhuk is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Artem Benediuk 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Serhii Kyslenko. 2‑0 against Feniks, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
1‑4 against Oleksandriya, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“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.
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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Murilo Rian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.88, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
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 Oct 2027
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Inhulets.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Anton Stepanenko, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
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.
Probiy next, and one man in the Inhulets dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Vitalii Rozhko is on it.
“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.
6 goals in one match, Serhii Kyslenko on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Inhulets and Chernihiv.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Inhulets know it.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑5 Anton Stepanenko left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Illia Hadzhuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.33 on the card, and the Inhulets support went home talking about one name.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Anton Stepanenko was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Inhulets dressing room was either.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nazar Prykhodko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Two goals and a mark of 8.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Up for the corner, and Illia Hadzhuk delivers — 7.97
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Illia Hadzhuk scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Serhii Kyslenko. 3‑1 against Ahrobiznes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Illia Hadzhuk 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Ahrobiznes spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Inhulets close the window on a squad of their own making
13 in and 9 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.
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.
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.
At 19 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Anton Stepanenko on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
“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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Kryvbas keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Inhulets have done the hard part with Kudrivka, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Artem Benediuk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Inhulets offered $290.0K; LNZ said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Hadzhuk is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Inhulets is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Chornomorets keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The deal with Karpaty is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Inhulets have gone to LNZ with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
Inhulets asked and LNZ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Daniil Myronchuk 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 offer from LNZ for Bohdan Mohylnyi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
13 combined actions and 6.42. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Hadzhuk 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.
Inhulets asked and Dynamo Kyiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Anton Zadereiko is in the works
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Inhulets people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
$280.0K settles it between the clubs for Maksym Luniov
Chornomorets have accepted the money. What Inhulets do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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 7.96 for the rest of it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Kryvbas is saying, and nobody at Inhulets is enjoying the guessing.
Inhulets have gone to Kryvbas with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Artem Benediuk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Podillia were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Illia Hadzhuk falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Inhulets asked and Feniks said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
“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.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Inhulets had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Chornomorets, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: LNZ keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The phone has started ringing about Stanislav Ursolov again, and this time the name on the line is Obolon. Inhulets are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Illia Hadzhuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Illia Hadzhuk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Oleksandr Yevtushenko’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Inhulets needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Kolos is saying, and nobody at Inhulets is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Inhulets offered $18.0K; Polissia said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Murilo Rian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Kolos is saying, and nobody at Inhulets is enjoying the guessing.
Inhulets asked and Kolos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Inhulets have gone to Polissia with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Obolon 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Murilo Rian 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Inhulets will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Inhulets they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bukovyna is saying, and nobody at Inhulets is enjoying the guessing.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Hadzhuk 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 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
6 new faces, and Inhulets are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Inhulets had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Kolos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Hadzhuk 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.
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.
Yaroslav Karpizin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Inhulets will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“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.
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.
Inhulets had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Kolos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The clubs have shaken hands with Kolos; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dynamo Kyiv have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Artem Benediuk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Hadzhuk is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 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.
“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.
“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 Yaroslav Riazantsev.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Vegard Ylvisaker Olsen has, at Inhulets, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Hadzhuk 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
“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.
Artem Benediuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“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 Oleksandr Yevtushenko.
“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.
Position 12 on 32 points, with the season drifting toward the summer. It is the safest place in football and the hardest one to sell a season ticket from.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Yevhen Yanovich’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
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.
“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.
“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.
Artem Benediuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Artem Benediuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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 Daniel Banyk has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Inhulets, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Inhulets the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
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.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Daniel Banyk
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Oleksandr Domoleha is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yaroslav Riazantsev and Inhulets agree another 4 years.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Oleksandr Yevtushenko is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Inhulets. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutDanylo Arkusha asks for a word with the manager
“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.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 32 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dmytro Panchenko and Inhulets agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout15 Mar 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Anton Stepanenko to a room that had heard them before.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Yaroslav Karpizin will call it something else in private.
1 for Mykhailo Khromei, marked 7.49, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andriy Tsygankov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vladyslav Bondar 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vitaliy Kovalenko has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Oleh Shevchenko has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Illia Hadzhuk
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.
Oleksandr Domoleha 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yaroslav Buravtsov is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Inhulets asked and Zorya said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
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.
“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.
Inhulets had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Kolos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
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.
Inhulets have made the call to Oleksandriya. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inhulets can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Bukovyna keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
7.59, 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kolos have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alisson Oliveira Da Silva did not need any: 7.73, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
$1.0M on the table at Bukovyna. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Inhulets have made the call to Dynamo Kyiv. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Mykhailo Khromei will call it something else in private.
Inhulets asked and Dynamo Kyiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
9 goals in 24 games at Feniks — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Inhulets updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Chornomorets the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Inhulets will enjoy reviewing.
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.
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 7.02 for the rest of it.
Oleksandr Domoleha and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Inhulets has been clear about where Vitalii Dubilei stands, which is more than many ever get.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout25 Jan 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 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Anton Stepanenko to a room that had heard them before.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Ahrobiznes were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Yaroslav Karpizin 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.
Marked 8.48 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Anton Stepanenko on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Inhulets have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Oleksandr Domoleha is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Anton Stepanenko left the room before anybody could ask which.
Beaten 4 times, 2 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
1 for Mykhailo Khromei, marked 7.40, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Maksym Skorokhod is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Anton Stepanenko after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Metalurh Zaporizhzhia next, and one man in the Inhulets dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutArtem Benediuk asks for a word with the manager
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yaroslav Karpizin is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
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.
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.
“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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Anton Stepanenko left the room before anybody could ask which.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
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.
3 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.
“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.
Metalist next, and one man in the Inhulets dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Anton Stepanenko after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Vorskla next, and one man in the Inhulets dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
6 goals in 17 games at Feniks — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Inhulets updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
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.
Oleksandr Domoleha 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Oleksandr Domoleha has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Anton Stepanenko was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Inhulets dressing room was either.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yaroslav Karpizin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Oleksandr Domoleha 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Position 8, 22 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
A brace, and Illia Hadzhuk takes the afternoon — 8.30
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Illia Hadzhuk provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mykhailo Khromei 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Anton Stepanenko on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Successful dribbles: 9. 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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Bohdan-Yulian Vyshynskyi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Inhulets needing him to play as if none of it matters.
6 goals in 13 games at Feniks — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Inhulets updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
“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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Inhulets. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
1 for Mykhailo Khromei, marked 7.64, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Oleksandr Yevtushenko 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Artem Babenko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Heorhiy Kravets has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.” Anton Stepanenko, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Bohdan-Yulian Vyshynskyi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Inhulets have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Livyi Bereh in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Up for the corner, and Illia Hadzhuk delivers — 7.58
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Illia Hadzhuk scored, was marked 7.58, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad26 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and Inhulets are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Marked 8.03 — 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
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.” Anton Stepanenko, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bukovyna in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Oleksandr Domoleha 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.
Something was said to Oleksandr Domoleha and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Vitalii Rozhko’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Inhulets needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Inhulets will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“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.
At 19 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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yaroslav Karpizin and Inhulets agree another 3 years.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmytro Bezkleinyi, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Anton Stepanenko left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Anton Stepanenko left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Spartak Trnava is saying, and nobody at Inhulets is enjoying the guessing.
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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Inhulets will try again when the window opens; Dynamo Kyiv may not be selling by then.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Anton Stepanenko left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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 team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Inhulets can pretend not to have heard.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Illia Hadzhuk scored in the 88th minute, Metalurh Zaporizhzhia had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Inhulets took the lot.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Inhulets close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 0 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Inhulets have done the hard part with Dynamo Kyiv, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Shakhtar will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Denys Petruk has pre-agreed a move to Inhulets, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Inhulets asked and Bukovyna said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Yaroslav Riazantsev 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Vitalii Dubilei was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.44. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsIllia Hadzhuk was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sigma Olomouc have kept their man, and Inhulets go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A loan enquiry to Spartak Trnava: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Andrii Melenchuk 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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Oleksandr Domoleha has moved up it.
The captaincy has been taken off Oleksandr Yevtushenko. Inhulets will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Metalurh Zaporizhzhia in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutDanylo Tuzenko asks for a word with the manager
The deal with Obolon 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Gornik Zabrze keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Anton Stepanenko was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Inhulets dressing room was either.
Nobody at Inhulets is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.29 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
$8.0K was the most the club would pay and Shakhtar were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Inhulets asked and Korona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $537.0K — a club that wants Kiril Popov enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Chornomorets this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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 offer went to Shakhtar this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Bohdan Mohylnyi will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Inhulets escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Inhulets have done the hard part with Polissia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Inhulets had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Shakhtar, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Kyrylo Sobol 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Oleksandr Mudryk 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yaroslav Karavayev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stanislav-Nuri Malysh and Inhulets agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Still no offer on the table, and Vitalii Dubilei’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Inhulets have made the call to Livyi Bereh. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Inhulets have made the call to Polissia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad3 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Inhulets are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.