19 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.
Muharrem Jashari and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Add another name to the list: Shakhtar have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Cody David. The answer from LNZ has not changed — yet.
8.40. 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.
27 goals in 27 games at Bukovyna — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at LNZ updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Metalist had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what LNZ can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
LNZ asked and Bukovyna said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what LNZ can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
LNZ have gone to Epicentr 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Metalist have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ajdi Dajko. The answer from LNZ has not changed — yet.
18 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what LNZ can pretend not to have heard.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Yevhenii Pastukh 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. LNZ will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Roman Didyk will call it something else in private.
Kojo Peprah Oppong 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.
8.28. 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmytro Ledvii 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.
17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 96th minute. Metalist will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A brace, and Cody David takes the afternoon — 9.23
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cody David provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Kojo Peprah Oppong 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: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tymofii Nivinskyi is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. LNZ deserved better, and so did he.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Hennadii Pasich has come out of that comparison in the side, and LNZ have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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 Kojo Peprah Oppong is on it.
In brief
SquadWords at LNZ training over how hard people work
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between LNZ and Poltava, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
9.89. 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 is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Artur Mykytyshyn 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 Muharrem Jashari at his very best
Tedi Cara has gone, the accounts have $4.9M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Montevideo City Torque pay $3.9M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
0‑0 against FC Lorient, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Muharrem Jashari has come out of that comparison in the side, and LNZ have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmytro Ledvii was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1‑0 against IA, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
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.
18 goals in 17 games at Bukovyna — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at LNZ updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yehor Tverdokhlib provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Kojo Peprah Oppong 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.
16 goals in 16 games at Bukovyna — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at LNZ updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Muharrem Jashari 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.
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.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Oleksandr Sudakov, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 Oleksii Palamarchuk is on it.
2‑1 against Anderlecht, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Cody David was at the centre of the description.
12 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LNZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LNZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1‑3 against Anderlecht, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Adam Yakubu 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.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LNZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Marked 7.73. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Artur Mykytyshyn 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.
8.31. 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.
A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. LNZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 13 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped 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 LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tymofii Nivinskyi is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about LNZ and Rukh in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Dynamo Kyiv next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Muharrem Jashari at his very best
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
1‑1 against FC Lorient, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
6 goals in one match, Tedi Cara on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of LNZ and Kolos.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Metalist kept coming because nothing stopped them, and LNZ will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Muharrem Jashari and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.” Oleksandr Sudakov chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Andrii Kitela falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
8 goals in 8 games at Bukovyna — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at LNZ updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
1‑1 against IA, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Artur Riabov was at the centre of the description.
Muharrem Jashari 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: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at LNZ until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Oleksii Palamarchuk 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 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.
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Halmstad had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Deportes Tolima keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
Player ratingsYevhenii Pastukh was on a different afternoon 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.
Denys Kuzyk has gone, the accounts have $3.8M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The offer from Zorya for Adam Yakubu 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.
Marked 9.62 — 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 offer from Zorya for Oleksii Palamarchuk 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.
$950.0K was the most the club would pay and Metalist 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.
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.
Denys Kuzyk 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.
LNZ asked and Panathinaikos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Muharrem Jashari 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.
Add another name to the list: Dynamo Kyiv have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Adam Yakubu. The answer from LNZ has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Drambaiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from HNK Rijeka for Dmytro Ledvii 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.
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and LNZ 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.