25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Metalist lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Nicolás Arévalo 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Peter Itodo
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Metalist can tell you which week it ends in.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Arévalo 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.
Serginho 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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Metalist has been clear about where Filip Karbowy stands, which is more than many ever get.
Add another name to the list: Orebro have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Illia Krupskyi. The answer from Metalist has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Arévalo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Metalist can tell you which week it ends in.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metalist will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metalist can pretend not to have heard.
Metalist moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Viktor Haiduchok, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Nicolás Arévalo 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.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ihor Malynovskyi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metalist will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Volodymyr Saliuk had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from NK Varazdin for Rafael Profini 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.
“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 Metalist, and it is not being withdrawn.
Metalist asked and Kudrivka 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 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.
Oleh Kozhushko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Metalist know it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bukovyna in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metalist will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Chornomorets pay $570.0K, 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.
$200.0K was the most the club would pay and Karpaty 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.
Metalist asked and Feniks said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Pikhalionok was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metalist this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metalist will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Oleksandr Pikhalionok was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The offer went to Karpaty 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.
Metalist asked and Prykarpattia 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 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The name of Oleksii Sydorov has come up in conversations Metalist were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Illia Krupskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Metalist, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metalist will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metalist have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Metalist, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Metalist hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The fee is $640.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Epicentr drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nicolás Arévalo and Metalist agree another 5 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Arévalo 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.
Oleh Kozhushko 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metalist will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Ruch had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Metalist can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The chase for Diego ended with $730.0K changing hands and Livyi Bereh out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Illia Zasovitskyi has agreed terms with Epicentr for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
$370.0K on the table at Kudrivka. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metalist will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Livyi Bereh have accepted the money. What Metalist do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer went to Epicentr 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.
The fee is $570.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Poltava 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 Metalist this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yaroslav Karpizin 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: LNZ have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Volodymyr Saliuk. The answer from Metalist has not changed — yet.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Bnei Yehuda had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Stanislav Sotnichuk is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Arévalo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Metalist, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 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.
Oleh Kozhushko 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Bnei Yehuda will make the call about Illia Krupskyi this week. Metalist have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
55 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Metalist have had the benefit of it.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Denys Palii has agreed terms with Prykarpattia for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Nicolás Arévalo 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Metalist know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
6 goals in 29 games at Kudrivka — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Metalist updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Metalist, another week without a signature from Yaroslav Protsenko.
Oleksandr Pikhalionok 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 Nicolás Arévalo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Metalist 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.
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Smolyakov 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.
José Bernal 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.
22 goals in 30 games at Chornomorets — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Metalist updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nicolás Arévalo 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Smolyakov 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.
Position 6 on 55 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
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.
Oleh Kozhushko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Metalist can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Something was said to Peter Itodo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Metalist know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Metalist 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.
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Smolyakov 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 Metalist this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Metalist know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Metalist. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metalist 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Denys Antiukh signs something — a contract at Metalist or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Yevhen Pavliuk has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Arévalo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Oleh Kozhushko 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sebastián Castillo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Peter Itodo signs something — a contract at Metalist or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Metalist that is a harder question to answer.
In brief
MatchContinental football is in reach for Metalist
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metalist this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Smolyakov 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Metalist told Ivan Kaliuzhnyi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Smolyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vladyslav Borysenkov and Metalist agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Arévalo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Metalist will try again when the window opens; Epicentr may not be selling by then.
Volodymyr Saliuk 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 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.
22 goals in 30 games at Chornomorets — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Metalist updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metalist is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Metalist will try again when the window opens; Zorya may not be selling by then.
Oleh Kozhushko 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Peter Itodo signs something — a contract at Metalist or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 6 on 55 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metalist have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nicolás Arévalo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Pikhalionok is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Metalist are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
0 appearances, 0 clean sheets, and a goalkeeper no further forward than the day he left. Whether that belongs to him, to the club that borrowed him or to the people who arranged it is the argument Metalist will have this month.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Livyi Bereh waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Metalist is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Metalist, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ivan Tyshchenko has just signed for Metalist, and for once the answer mattered.
The offer went to Zorya 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.
The chase for Ivan Tyshchenko ended with $260.0K changing hands and Bukovyna out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: 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.
Position 6 on 55 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.
Bukovyna did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $4.4M for Oleh Kozhushko, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sebastián Castillo did not need any: 8.45, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer from Oleksandriya for Yevhen Pavliuk 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Smolyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Metalist asked and Juventus said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metalist this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Dynamo Kyiv did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $3.2M for Oleksandr Pikhalionok, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Bukovyna; Metalist go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metalist have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nicolás Arévalo 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.
Everything agreed with Dynamo Kyiv, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Vorskla paid $130.0K and Metalist took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Metalist asked and AEK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metalist this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
19 goals in 27 games at Chornomorets — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Metalist updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Peter Itodo 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.
Volodymyr Saliuk 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.
“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 Metalist, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metalist this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Smolyakov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Artem Smolyakov 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.
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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The name of Oleksii Sydorov has come up in conversations Metalist were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Viktor Haiduchok to a room that had heard them before.
3 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ivan Kaliuzhnyi and Metalist agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Smolyakov 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 Metalist this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metalist 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 Artem Smolyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Metalist are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Arévalo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Volodymyr Saliuk 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 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Shabanov, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Dec 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.” Viktor Haiduchok 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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metalist lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nicolás Arévalo 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.
16 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleksandr Yushchenko, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 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.” Viktor Haiduchok chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
14 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.
Something was said to Diego Lorensi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nicolás Arévalo scored, was marked 7.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Nicolás Arévalo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Illia Krupskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Peter Itodo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
A brace, and Peter Itodo takes the afternoon — 9.01
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Peter Itodo provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Arévalo 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 Metalist, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Match5 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Metalist. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Volodymyr Saliuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Metalist has been clear about where Serginho stands, which is more than many ever get.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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 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.
Filip Karbowy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Metalist know it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Metalist told Denys Antiukh something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Metalist scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
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.
Nicolás Arévalo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Smolyakov 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.
A performance of 8.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad23 Nov 2026
6 new faces, and Metalist 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Viktor Haiduchok could afford to be generous.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Arévalo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Artem Smolyakov 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Epicentr spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Kudrivka spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Smolyakov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 21 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metalist 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Metalist know it.
Something was said to Heorhii Yermakov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Artem Smolyakov is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutDiego Lorensi dropped after a run of poor form
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.
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 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Viktor Haiduchok on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Metalist told Ermir Rashica something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nicolás Arévalo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Smolyakov 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Metalist can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metalist have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yuriy Dudnyk is living that version at Metalist, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
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.
Filip Karbowy 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 Nicolás Arévalo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Metalist game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Podillia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Volodymyr Saliuk 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Rafael Profini has come out of that comparison in the side, and Metalist have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
8 goals in 10 games at Chornomorets — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Metalist updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. LNZ will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Nicolás Arévalo 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.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Rukh; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Nicolás Arévalo 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. Kolos have kept their man, and Metalist 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.
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Viktor Haiduchok to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
Player ratingsThe cruellest goal, and it is Ermir Rashica's
Metalist asked and Mamelodi Sundowns said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
1 for Oleksandr Yatsyk, marked 7.79, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Arévalo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Oleksandr Yatsyk 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.
Serginho 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.
“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.
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Dynamo Kyiv had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Metalist did not stop to explain themselves.
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 7.58 for the rest of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Cortulua; Metalist go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. José Bernal has just signed for Metalist, and for once the answer mattered.
The offer from Ruch for Oleksii Sydorov 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.
Metalist had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lech, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Danylo Varakuta: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
$720.0K on the table at Shakhtar. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Metalist had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cortulua, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Karpaty paid $930.0K and Metalist took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Nicolás Arévalo 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.
“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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Filip Karbowy is living that version at Metalist, and it tends to show in the first month.
Metalist paid $1.6M and Metalist took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
Oleksandriya paid $1.0M and Metalist took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Metalist training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Arévalo 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: 41. 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Nyva 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: Banik Ostrava keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Smolyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Oleksandr Martyniuk has come up in conversations Metalist were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Successful dribbles: 38. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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 7.40 for the rest of it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Metalist have done the hard part with Kolos, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Metalist 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Metalist go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nicolás Arévalo 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Yaroslav Kocherhin has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Arévalo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The name of Yaroslav Protsenko has come up in conversations Metalist were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Artem Smolyakov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Metalist.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Artem Smolyakov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.