There were 86 minutes on the clock and Kudrivka had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Karpaty did not stop to explain themselves.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Serhii Miakushko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Karpaty the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty 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 Vitalii Kholod was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Xeber Alkain 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Karpaty and Metalist in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
9.79. 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.
12 goals and a season average of 7.25 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Uroš Sremčević was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.93. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Xeber Alkain 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 Oct 2028
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitalii Kholod is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Karpaty, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Uroš Sremčević 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.
9 combined actions and 7.78. 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Karpaty will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Something was said to Uroš Sremčević and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout25 Sep 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 Roman Boyko to a room that had heard them before.
Squad25 Sep 2028
5 new faces, and Karpaty 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 dugout25 Sep 2028
Andrii Buleza is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Karpaty can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Xeber Alkain. 1‑0 against Dynamo Kyiv, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Karabin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Karpaty will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 23 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer from Ahrobiznes for Artem Plysiuk 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.
Xeber Alkain and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Artem Plysiuk did not need any: 9.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Xeber Alkain 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.
10 goals in one match, Joseph Séry on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Karpaty and Nyva.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Luiz Yano 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Luiz Yano at his very best
The offer from Podillia for Matvii Kashuba 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Three points for Karpaty, 2‑0 the final word against Rukh in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Karabin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yaroslav Karabin provided it, and the 8.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Karpaty can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Karpaty they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match19 Aug 2028
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Karpaty. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Karpaty have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at PAOK is saying, and nobody at Karpaty is enjoying the guessing.
Xeber Alkain 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 Aug 2028
Jean Pedroso has improved at 24, 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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Illia Moskovchenko has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Karpaty have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Uroš Sremčević decided otherwise. Veres 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. Uroš Sremčević provided it, and the 8.44 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Uroš Sremčević is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Xeber Alkain 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.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Two goals and a mark of 9.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
A brace, and Xeber Alkain takes the afternoon — 8.53
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Xeber Alkain provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Karpaty can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Pandurii for Denys Marchenko 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.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Fellipe Vieira Cardoso 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 Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
$67.0K was the most the club would pay and Chernihiv 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The name of Denys Marchenko has come up in conversations Karpaty were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Karpaty can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Xeber Alkain 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 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Karabin 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.
Crvena Zvezda 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Karpaty know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Maccabi Petach Tikva had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Xeber Alkain 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 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.
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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitalii Kholod 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.
Add another name to the list: Metalurh Zaporizhzhia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Artem Plysiuk. The answer from Karpaty has not changed — yet.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vitalii Kholod signs something — a contract at Karpaty or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Serhii Miakushko is on it.
In brief
The dugoutAnton Zhylkin asks for a word with the manager
BoardroomThe Karpaty production line keeps running
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Karpaty people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The 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.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Bukovyna had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Karpaty offered $150.0K; Ahrobiznes 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and Karpaty go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Karpaty have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Karabin 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.
Karpaty have made the call to Sigma Olomouc. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and Karpaty are still learning each other
“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 Karpaty, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Karpaty they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Karpaty have gone to Oleksandriya 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.
Xeber Alkain and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Metalist have kept their man, and Karpaty go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Karpaty offered $290.0K; Metalist 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitalii Kholod 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 name of Matvii Kashuba has come up in conversations Karpaty were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Zeleznicar Pancevo had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Xeber Alkain was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Karpaty 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yaroslav Karabin signs something — a contract at Karpaty or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Karabin 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Denys Marchenko 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Denys Marchenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Xeber Alkain and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Karabin 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.
0 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
3 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Karpaty no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
Nobody at Karpaty 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.
53 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Andrii Pokladok has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Karpaty they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Xeber Alkain and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rostyslav Liakh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Karpaty game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bukovyna runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Xeber Alkain was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Karpaty, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Serhii Miakushko is on 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 Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ambrosii Chachua and Karpaty agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Karabin 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 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 Fellipe Vieira Cardoso is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Karpaty would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
Artur Komarenyts is 20, and Karpaty have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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 Joseph Séry is on it.
53 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
A new face in his position, and Iván Calero suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Karpaty have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Xeber Alkain and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Karabin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karpaty lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dmytro Forsiuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Karpaty the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Xeber Alkain was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Karpaty, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Arkhip Kuptsov is 20, and Karpaty have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Nobody at Karpaty 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rostyslav Liakh signs something — a contract at Karpaty or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matvii Kashuba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Karpaty the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rostyslav Liakh 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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Karpaty will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
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 Fellipe Vieira Cardoso is on it.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karpaty lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Artur Stirus has just signed for Karpaty, and for once the answer mattered.
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 Joseph Séry is on it.
Position 5, 53 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
In brief
The dugoutAnton Zhylkin knocks on the manager's door
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karpaty lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Karpaty have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Xeber Alkain 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Karabin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I watch every Karpaty game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bukovyna runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and Karpaty are still learning each other
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Karpaty lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Karpaty they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Xeber Alkain 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 Rostyslav Liakh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Karpaty game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Voluntari runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Denys Khamko is 20, and Karpaty have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karpaty lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matvii Kashuba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Karpaty the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Karpaty 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Karpaty have no good answer.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Jean Pedroso has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karpaty lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The name of Matvii Kashuba has come up in conversations Karpaty were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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 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 Joseph Séry is on it.
53 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Karpaty, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 83 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Xeber Alkain 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Add another name to the list: Chernihiv have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dmytro Forsiuk. The answer from Karpaty has not changed — yet.
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 watch every Karpaty game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bukovyna runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karpaty lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 5 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.
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.
The fee is $870.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Kolos drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dmytro Forsiuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Karpaty the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Xeber Alkain 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 point taken on 93 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.
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karpaty lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Illia Kvasnytsia provided it, and the 9.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer went to Kolos 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.
Karpaty had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Flamengo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The fee is $350.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Metalist drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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 Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karpaty lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Karpaty have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Karpaty and Metalist have settled on $350.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“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.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karpaty lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Kravets will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Karpaty the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Xeber Alkain 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.
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. 7.94 beside his name.
122 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Karpaty lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. Obolon will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matvii Kashuba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Karpaty the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Xeber Alkain 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 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleksandr Kemkin, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rostyslav Liakh is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Karpaty, and 3 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and AS Nancy waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dmytro Forsiuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Karpaty the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
8.60. 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.
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. Karpaty will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anton Kravets will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Karpaty the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 offer from Union La Calera for Denys Marchenko 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.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout27 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.” Roman Boyko chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Xeber Alkain 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.
8.92. 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Karabin 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.
Minute 93, against Oleksandriya, 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cobresal waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Xeber Alkain 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.
8.47. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Karpaty they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduard Kravets was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Denys Marchenko is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 12 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Xeber Alkain 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.
Marked 10.00 — 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It finished 3‑1, and it was Illia Kvasnytsia’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Karpaty.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Karabin 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.01 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Karpaty they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Xeber Alkain 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.
Marked 9.27 — 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.
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.
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.
Chornomorets go through and Karpaty go home, 2‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marked 8.84 — 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.
Marked 8.47 — 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matvii Kashuba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Karpaty the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ambrosii Chachua 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 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Joseph Séry
Xeber Alkain 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 Vitalii Kholod was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 87. LNZ had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yaroslav Karabin provided it, and the 9.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Karpaty they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Xeber Alkain 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Rukh spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
10.00. 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Karpaty and Obolon in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Karpaty they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ambrosii Chachua and Karpaty agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitalii Kholod 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.
Xeber Alkain was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Illia Kvasnytsia. 1‑0 against Kryvbas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.49 — 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 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 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 Serhii Miakushko is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dmytro Forsiuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Karpaty the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Xeber Alkain and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not 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.
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Serhii Miakushko
59Edition
The Karpaty Courier
13 Sep 2027
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Karpaty close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 18 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Karpaty they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitalii Kholod was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Roman Boyko was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Karpaty dressing room was either.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jamal Abubakar has just signed for Karpaty, and for once the answer mattered.
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 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 Oleksandriya; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yaroslav Karabin provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Karpaty people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Matvii Kashuba, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Xeber Alkain 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. Dmytro Forsiuk is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Vitalii Kholod had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Karpaty people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Karpaty they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Xeber Alkain and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A 1‑0 win over Kolos, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitalii Kholod 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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Roman Boyko on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lechia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ambrosii Chachua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Roman Boyko on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Karpaty people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The name of Denys Marchenko has come up in conversations Karpaty were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Karpaty asked and Juventude said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ambrosii Chachua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Karpaty lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Chornomorets kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Karpaty will be asked about the last half hour all week.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Xeber Alkain 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Eduard Zinchenko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karpaty lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Victoriia Sumy waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Xeber Alkain and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Partizan have kept their man, and Karpaty go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
In brief
Looking aheadKarpaty take on the side everybody is chasing
The words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” O'Higgins had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
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.
Nobody at Karpaty will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer from Metalist for Yaroslav Karabin 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and Karpaty go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitalii Kholod was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Karpaty 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.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karpaty lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Gostaresh Foulad had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Jihlava for Denys Marchenko 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dmytro Forsiuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Karpaty the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Karpaty had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Boca Juniors, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Xeber Alkain 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 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.
Add another name to the list: Kudrivka have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luiz Yano. The answer from Karpaty has not changed — yet.
The words a physio says slowly. 54 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Karpaty have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Nazariy Rusyn was one of the reasons people came, and $3.6M does not replace that by itself.
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.
The deal with Boca Juniors 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.
Xeber Alkain 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 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 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.
63 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Karpaty lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Karpaty people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Denys Marchenko is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Add another name to the list: Pribram have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Vitalii Kholod. The answer from Karpaty has not changed — yet.
$370.0K was the most the club would pay and Nyva 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.
48 goals in 30 games at Livyi Bereh — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Karpaty updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
70 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Karpaty lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Karpaty, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Karpaty 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 Ambrosii Chachua 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 Anton Zhylkin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Fellipe Vieira Cardoso is on it.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karpaty lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Xeber Alkain 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 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ambrosii Chachua 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Karpaty, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Karpaty 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.
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karpaty lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Karpaty they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Xeber Alkain and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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 Serhii Miakushko is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Karpaty know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Denys Miroshnichenko plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karpaty lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ambrosii Chachua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Vitalii Kholod's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
8 clean sheets from 30 appearances at Kryvbas. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 104 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ambrosii Chachua 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 Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Karpaty lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Xeber Alkain was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Karpaty 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nazariy Rusyn signs something — a contract at Karpaty or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Iván Calero
MatchNothing left to play for but pride at Karpaty
The words a physio says slowly. 119 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Karpaty they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Xeber Alkain 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 May 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ambrosii Chachua is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Karpaty, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Anton Zhylkin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Karpaty know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
128 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Karpaty lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ambrosii Chachua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
8 clean sheets from 30 appearances at Kryvbas. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rostyslav Liakh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Xeber Alkain 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 Apr 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ambrosii Chachua 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 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 Andrii Buleza 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 Karpaty, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Karpaty is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Xeber Alkain 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 Ambrosii Chachua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Karpaty game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Metalist runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
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 Serhii Miakushko is on it.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Vitalii Kholod's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
48 goals in 30 games at Livyi Bereh — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Karpaty updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Xeber Alkain and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ambrosii Chachua is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Karpaty 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Karpaty know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Xeber Alkain and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ambrosii Chachua 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 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.
Denys Marchenko has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Karpaty they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Xeber Alkain was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Iván Calero
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Iván Calero has come out of that comparison in the side, and Karpaty have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at Karpaty 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Karpaty, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Serhii Miakushko has written the date down.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Karabin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Artem Plysiuk is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
8 shut-outs in 30 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Oleksandr Kemkin has been having a lot 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Karpaty, and both men came out saying it was fine.
1‑4 to Zorya, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 35 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Karpaty have done the hard part with San Lorenzo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ambrosii Chachua 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Karpaty have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Almirante Brown keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Xeber Alkain 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.
46 goals in 28 games at Livyi Bereh — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Karpaty updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Matvii Kashuba could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.64
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.64, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Rukh will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dynamo Kyiv keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Matvii Kashuba 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.
Add another name to the list: Poltava have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Andrii Buleza. The answer from Karpaty has not changed — yet.
41 goals in 27 games at Livyi Bereh — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Karpaty updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Vitalii Kholod had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: San Miguel keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Karpaty asked and Nyva 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 offer from Esteghlal Ahvaz for Jean Pedroso 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.
36 goals in 25 games at Livyi Bereh — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Karpaty updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Add another name to the list: Hapoel Acre have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jean Pedroso. The answer from Karpaty has not changed — yet.
Xeber Alkain and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ambrosii Chachua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Xeber Alkain 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.
Three points for Karpaty, 1‑0 the final word against Poltava in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitalii Kholod 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Roman Boyko could afford to be generous.
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.
31 goals in 23 games at Livyi Bereh — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Karpaty updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Karpaty had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
The dugoutAnton Zhylkin has become a man the manager trusts
Xeber Alkain and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ambrosii Chachua 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ambrosii Chachua was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vladyslav Babohlo 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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Serhii Miakushko
Xeber Alkain 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.
Marked 8.18 — 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
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.” Roman Boyko kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladyslav Babohlo 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Karpaty have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Two goals and a mark of 9.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Karpaty 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 Vitalii Kholod was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Xeber Alkain and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Karpaty training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitalii Kholod 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout30 Nov 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 1‑4 Roman Boyko left the room before anybody could ask which.
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Karpaty lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Ambrosii Chachua's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Xeber Alkain 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Karpaty and Kryvbas, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 3‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at Karpaty training over how hard people work